Seen tweets of celebrities calling for #JusticeForUwa. It is welcome. While we are on this, it is important to demand that governors like @GovernorObaseki who have publicly reacted to public calls do something tangible beyond "I have instructed the police to investigate"

One tangible thing they can do is: 1) Quickly send Executive Bills on 'Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Bill' to their States' Houses of Assembly

for consideration and passage into law. They don't have run to Singapore to copy and paste this Bill. We already have the VAPP Act 2015 that they can reproduce. It is that easy

The VAPP Act 2015 is one of the rafts of laws passed by Dr Jonathan 4 days to the end of his tenure in 2015. It is a comprehensive law which deals with rape, sexual assault, sexual intimidation, sexual harassment and sexual violence

With 48 sections, VAPP Act 2015 also deals with forcible eviction and lockout- patriarchal practices in which husbands forcibly evict or lockout wives from matrimonial homes

One outstanding creativeness of VAPP Act is that it redefines RAPE and extends the boundary of its meaning. Any intentional penetration of the vagina, anus, mouth- orifices- comes within rape

It doesn't matter if the the person doing the penetration is a man or woman. Under the VAPP Act, a woman can also technically rape a man if forced - without his consent- to penetrate her orifices

Punishment for RAPE is life imprisonment. However, there are two downsides to the VAPP Act, which I pointed out during the public hearing on the Bill/Act in late 2014 as follows:

1) Section 2 VAPP Act 2015 strangely reduces the age of consent ( conflicting with S.31(3) of the Child Rights Act) and makes a child of 14 years culpable for sexual crimes

This strange section is capable of creating the same problem we find in Section 23 or 24 ( my head can't be too sure now as I type extempore) of the Constitution 1999.

2) The VAPP Act is by Section 47 limited in application only to Abuja and the FCT. I objected at the public hearing as to why an important Bill should be restricted to the FCT.

Perhaps, the cultural and religious objections raised by members from a section of the country accounted for this. The Act thus became a product of consensus law-making

Governors can copy the VAPP Act, with slight alterations of the areas highlighted earlier to suit their local circumstances, and send to their States Houses of Assembly for consideration and passage.

Let's fight Rape and sexual violence with the best legal instrument available to us.
Good morning from the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine #JusticeForUwa