Bauchi Assembly to establish additional sexual assault centres

Speaker, Bauchi State House of Assembly, Abubakar Suleiman. Credit: Bauchi State House of Assembly.

The Bauchi State House of Assembly has adopted a motion calling for the establishment of additional Sexual Assault Referral Centres across the state to improve access to care for survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.

The motion was presented before the House on Tuesday by the Speaker, Abubakar Suleiman.

Moving the motion, the Speaker said Bauchi State, with 20 local government areas and a large, geographically dispersed population, was currently served by only one Sexual Assault Referral Centre domiciled at the Specialist Hospital, Bauchi.

He said the situation posed serious challenges to survivors, particularly those living in remote and hard-to-reach communities.

Suleiman said, “I rise to call on the Executive Arm of the Bauchi State Government to establish additional Sexual Assault Referral Centres across Bauchi State to ensure timely, accessible, confidential and comprehensive care for survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.”

He noted that transportation costs, delays in accessing medical care, fear of stigma and possible exposure of survivors’ identities could discourage victims from seeking urgent assistance.

The Speaker urged the state government, through relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies, particularly the Ministries of Health, Women Affairs, Justice and Humanitarian Affairs, to establish, as a first phase, at least two fully functional SARCs in each senatorial district of the state.

He also called for adequate budgetary provisions for the centres and effective implementation by relevant MDAs, as well as sustained public sensitisation on sexual and gender-based violence.

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Suleiman further urged the House Committees on Health, Women Affairs and Justice to engage relevant stakeholders on the matter and report back to the House within 60 days.

Contributing to the debate, a member representing Sade constituency in Darazo Local Government, Lawal Dauda, said the increasing cases of sexual assault were partly linked to inadequate punishment for perpetrators.

Dauda expressed concern that perpetrators were not being made to serve sufficiently long prison terms, stressing that the existing single referral centre was inadequate to handle cases across the state.

He, therefore, urged the House to adopt all the prayers contained in the motion.

Arewa PUNCH gathered that the motion followed an advocacy visit by the Azurfa Women and Youth Development Initiative, with support from Plan International, as part of efforts to advocate for the establishment and expansion of Sexual Assault Referral Centres across Bauchi State.

The initiative is aimed at improving access to medical treatment and other support services for survivors, particularly those living in hard-to-reach communities, while encouraging them to seek timely care and preserve evidence needed for legal proceedings.