The Senate on Thursday passed a bill seeking to end sexual harassment in educational institutions.
The bill, which was read a third time and passed by the senate during plenary, followed a report of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters on the bill titled “Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Institution Bill 2016.”
It was read by Sen. David Umaru (APC-Niger).
The sponsor of the Bill, Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege, (PDP-Delta), who spoke to reporters on the bill shortly after plenary, said he was delighted at the cooperation of his colleagues.
“As you recall when we pushed this bill, we actually proposed a punishment of three years in prison and a fine of N1 million, but the Senate in its wisdom felt that even that was not enough.
It wanted to send a stronger message and as a result of that have increased the punishment from three years to five years and the fine from N1 million to N5 million or both fine and imprisonment.
Today the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has made clear that enough is enough and never again will sexual harassment be the norm or the order of the day in our tertiary institutions,” Omo Agege said.
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