By Mabinty M. Kamara
The First lady of Sierra Leone, Fatima Bio, has blamed the Police and Judiciary for the plight of girls who fell victim of sexual abuse. Mrs Bio said the two institutions have failed to protect girls against sexual crimes like rape.
She made the revelation as part of her report on the challenges facing the fight against rape and the protection of girls in the country. The report was presented to President Julius Maada Bio on Friday, during the final launch of the “Hands Off Our Girls” campaign.
“Hands Off Our Girls,” an initiative of the First Lady, was first launched last December. The campaign focuses on protecting girls from sexual crimes like rape and other problems like early marriage or teenage pregnancy.
The campaign has been launched in most of the 16 districts in the country.
In her remarks during Friday’s final launch, Mrs Bio called out the Police and Judiciary among key stakeholders she said must take the responsibility for the situation for their ‘complicity’ in harming children.
Fatima also blamed religious people, teachers, traditional authorities and law makers equally for the harm children go through in Sierra Leone.
“Your Excellency, I want you to know that school going boys sometimes impregnate our girls and they continue to go to school whiles the girls drop out of school,” she said in her speech to the Stadium packed audience that included her husband, President Julius Maada Bio.
“Mr. President, I want you to know that the police have committed to working with us since the beginning of this campaign, till date. But I want you to know that most police officers rape our girls and those police officers needs to be punished. I also want you to know that rape cases are being delayed and not treated seriously by the magistrates in the courts. So, if you see a rapist repeat the same act, it’s because they weren’t giving justice by sending them to jail where they belong,” she said.
Fatima added: “I also want you to know that there are some pastors in this country who call prayer meetings at mid night for girls to attend and most times the girls dress from the home for church but changes into something else and go to club during this time. Mr. President, I also want you to know that some of these pastors do abuse our girls and they are supposed to be role models. Mr. President I want you to engage the Imams of this country as they are the cause of early marriages in this country as they are the ones that officiate weddings of girls of age 14.”
Throughout the launch of the “Hands Off Our Girls” across the country, Mrs Bio had been critical about the role of the Police and the judiciary. Women and girls’ rights campaigners have in the past also blamed the two institutions for the situation of rape in the country.
Rape is a growing social problem in Sierra Leone. President Bio declared an emergency on it early this year. His pronouncement set a chain of events which culminated into the passing of the Amended Sexual Offences Act of 2019.
In his speech on Friday, Bio said: “The brutal rape of our girls is inhuman, is unquestionable and must end now! Sexual exploitation of a girl child is a barbaric act on our national conscience, and we must end it now. Sexual and gender-based violence is undignified and we must stop it now! Discriminatory practices and actions against our girls are wrong and we must stop it now! Men must take the primary responsibility for teenage pregnancy and we must end it now! We have the moral and constitutional rights to protect the girl child and to change the outcome.”
Bio also took time to comment on the latest ruling by the ECOWAS court regarding the ban on pregnant girls which forces them out of school until they deliver. Bio said his government was engaging on a way pass this.
“We are fully committed as a government to removing all barriers that prevent women to participate fully in development. We inherited a policy of excluding pregnant girls from educational institutions without exceptions. As a person, my views are known about this, but we are not in a rush about making contrary statements about this issue. We are therefore intentionally reviewing the issue with several key things in mind. First, we will look at the data of pregnant schoolgirls, we will also look at what our constitution says about the rights of every child to access education,” he noted.
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