Justice Rahman Oshodi of an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court has on Tuesday underscored the need to create a Lagos State victims assistance and witness protection agency.

Mr Oshodi said delays in activating the body had denied victims of crime access to support and protection guaranteed by law.

The judge stated this after handing down a seven-year jail term to a civil servant, Adio Serious, for the indecent treatment of his daughter.

The defendant was said to have stripped his daughter naked and touched her private parts.

Mr Oshodi recalled that, in a judgment he delivered in another matter on May 21, 2025, he had drawn attention to the need for an effective framework to protect victims and witnesses.

According to him, the victims’ assistance and witness protection law, signed into law in 2024, provides a comprehensive framework for addressing the needs of crime victims.

The court said the law contained provisions for compensating victims and protecting witnesses from intimidation, threats and reprisals arising from their participation in criminal proceedings.

The judge noted that the legislation also established the Lagos State victims’ assistance and witness protection agency as the body responsible for implementing the protections and support mechanisms set out in the law.

The court, however, observed that despite the passage of the law, the agency had yet to be constituted, leaving many of its provisions dormant and inaccessible to victims.

“Until it is constituted, the protections envisaged by the law remain unavailable,” he said.

The court stressed that victims and witnesses, particularly in cases involving sexual abuse and violence against children, often face trauma, fear and pressure that could discourage them from pursuing justice.

According to him, an operational witness protection system is essential to ensuring that victims and witnesses can testify without fear of intimidation.

The court, consequently, called on relevant authorities to constitute the agency without delay, so that survivors of sexual abuse and other crimes could receive the support, protection and recognition guaranteed by law.

(NAN)