When Justice Found Its Voice: Bauchi Bold Fight Against Child Rape

By Ude Ogbonnaya Israel

When six-year-old Amina (not her real name) lingered after class, nobody could guess her headmaster, Jalaludeen Zakari, would woo her to stay back for four hours just to turn a place of learning into one of trauma—defiling her.

In January 2024, Justice Nana Fatimah Jibrin of the Bauchi State High Court announced that Zakari had been sentenced to 11 years imprisonment for raping the six year old minor at Burra Primary School in Ningi Local Government Area of Bauchi State.

Barrister Dayabu Ayuba, who prosecuted the case, said the child’s steady testimony and three supporting witnesses were the compelling evidence that supported the verdict.

That ruling would become more than punishment — it symbolized a system rediscovering its spine.

A History of Hidden Horrors

Before now, news headlines from Bauchi state in regular occasions had consistently been punctuated with gender based violence related stories including cases of rape — more worrisome, that of minor.

In recent history, 2020 saw the peak of this menace. That was the year Daily Trust reported how a 14 year old was gang raped for one month; same year Bauchi State Justice Ministry secured six convictions of rape; no fewer than 233 rape offenders counted among 2682 Bauchi suspects by the police cammand.

A Birth of a Movement

Alarmed by this ill trend and in quest of a solution to the problem, the office of the first lady Aisha Bala Mohammed the same year decided to establish a movement called Action Committee on gender based violence.

The committee according to her is principally to check the execesses of gender based violence in the state including that of rape.

The launching of the Action Committee on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) to confront the rising tide of abuse cases threatening to overwhelm the justice system introduced a new phase of immediate and decisive response to rape cases and other GBV.

Barrister Shawanatu Yusuf, former Director of Public Prosecutions and a member of the committee in an interview with Albarka Radio revealed that the wide spread of gender based violence and rape especially, prompted the first lady to look for solutions.

“Before the inception of the committee, there was so much cases of rape, it was so rampant.

“That’s why the first lady now felt that there is need for a committee to be set so that cases of rape will be dealt with from the side of the chief judge”, she said.

Justice Without Delay

In overcoming the common challenge of delay in trials and adjournment that usually mars rape cases, Bar. Shawanatu maintained that efforts were in place already to ensure a speedy trial of any case of GBV, hence some courts were reserved and dedicated to this function.

“The first lady has already designated three courts and three judges respectively who have been given the mandate to entertain rape cases promptly”, she added.

This move according to her, and unlike before is leading to completion of rape cases within two or three months.

She further unveiled that the committee is made up of four sub-committees which focuses on health, Legal, Psycho social support and family economy strengthening support—a strategy that promotes coordination, compassion, and courage thereby rewriting the story of rape cases in Bauchi State.

The Barrister observed that courtesy of the complications that accompanies GBV and rape cases, the first lady knew that to successfully convict culprits of these offences will not only require political will and decisive actions, but also important stakeholders who will play critical unique roles in the committees.

Thus, the sub committees who played unique roles were independently drawn from the judiciary, security, education, health sector, religious and traditional sectors with each expediting efforts to respond to cases by way of prevention, enlightenment, support for survivors and speedy prosecution for offenders.

A Surge in Reporting

During the 2023 16 Days of Activism, the First Lady of Bauchi State Dr. Aisha Bala Mohammed revealed the committee recorded and treated 226 cases of minor rape that year reflecting how deeply the committee has penetrated once-hidden spaces.

Speaking on the place of the office of the first lady in the combat against rape cases in the state a Magistrate of the first Grade Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of Bauchi state Magistrate Amina Garba noted that the fight for justice for GBV cannot be record it’s current success without the influence of the first lady’s office.

“The office of the first lady has greatly aided in the prosecution of culprits of sexual and gender based violence including rapists; the office is at the forefront of the fight against this menace in the state and it is with the office support that we have this committee dedicated to it.

“The committee is up and doing in all the 20 LGA of Bauchi , up and doing in the gender desk at the police station and they support the Federation of Women Lawyers in Nigeria in the fight against rape or any other GBV in the state”, the Magistrate said.

To prevent re-traumatization, she pointed out that survivors may testify in privacy from behind a curtain shielded from public glare and intimidation, but however noted that people’s sympathy now lies with the survivors compared to previous times where people sympathize with perpetrators pleading for pardon and mercy

She noted that the committee was able to garner the executive and legislative support to enact new laws — the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Law and the updated Penal Code of 2022 which introduced stronger penalties and even punished accomplices who obstruct justice or refuse to testify.

Gap Still Exist

Despite success recorded, magistrate Garba concedes the path is still incomplete: the Administration of Criminal Justice Law still lacks full implementation, and the absence of a survivor maintenance fund keeps many families financially exposed.

But, a big success beyond the fast conviction of rape cases to serve a deterrents is that the early 2025 saw the rollout of the GBV Case Management System—a digital database archiving offenders and active cases.

This tends to allow prosecutors, police, and social workers to coordinate seamlessly and stop serial offenders from slipping through bureaucratic cracks.

According to Barrister M. U. Usman, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, collaboration with the First Lady’s office has accelerated justice delivery as between January and September 2025, the ministry filed 42 GBV cases, most of them rape.

As a limitation, he observed that missing video-recorded confessions from police weaken evidence in court, making corroboration from witnesses indispensable.

The assistant commissioner of police at At the Criminal Investigation Department, ACP Yahaya Abdulkadir insists the police treat GBV complaints as priority crimes but acknowledges

“We only have issues with complainants not coming up to support our prosecution by testifying, but I can tell you that with the support of the office of the first lady and the judiciary as well, our cases of GBV are not compromised at all”, he said.

A Model of Hope

Bauchi’s experience reveals that ending gender-based violence demands more than outrage — it needs organization, political will, and compassion fused into policy.

The Action Committee’s model — inter-agency, survivor-centered, digitally tracked — is a framework any state can adapt.

This story is a publication of Albarka Radio 97.5 FM Bauchi and supported by Nigeria Health Watch as part of the Solutions Journalism Africa Initiative.