If you are in danger right now, call your local emergency number. Escrow is not an emergency service.
Is it too late to report in Lagos?
Probably later than you think.
Lagos does have a deadline, and it is quoted in full below rather than summarised. It is measured against the law, not against how long you have been quiet.
Some of this comes from support organisations or published research rather than an official source in Nigeria. Sources are below.
the deadline in Lagos, quoted in full
There is no fixed waiting period before you can report to the police, and doing so quickly helps preserve evidence. Nigeria's federal Criminal Code has historically placed a short time limit on prosecuting some sexual offences. Lawmakers have been moving to remove that limit. The rules differ by law and are changing. Ask the Mirabel Centre or a lawyer about the current deadline for your specific case, rather than relying on a fixed number.
We quote this rather than shorten it. A shortened deadline is a wrong deadline, and this is the sentence a lawyer would want to read.
2 different clocks
The exam window runs in hours. The deadline runs in years.
the exam window in Lagos
Ask the police, or go directly to a Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) such as the Mirabel Centre, for a forensic medical examination. Another government hospital can also do it. You do not need a police report first to be examined. Try to avoid washing, changing clothes or brushing your teeth beforehand so evidence is preserved. Emergency contraception and HIV post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) both need to be started within 72 hours of the assault to be effective.
This is the clock that runs out fast. You can be examined without deciding whether to go to the police.
the limitation period
This is the deadline for the case itself — how long the law gives before a prosecution can no longer be brought. It is usually many years for rape, and often longer or unlimited when the survivor was a child.
Missing the exam window does not mean the limitation period has passed. They are separate clocks.
where to report in Lagos
Go to any police station and ask for the Family Support Unit (FSU). This is a Lagos-wide unit of officers trained to handle rape and sexual and gender-based violence cases. You can also ask for the Gender Unit within the State Criminal Investigation Department. You can go straight to the Mirabel Centre, Nigeria's first Sexual Assault Referral Centre. It is located within Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH). Mirabel staff can help you make a police report. They will coordinate directly with the FSU on your behalf.
if the deadline has passed
A closed case is not the same as no record.
If the period above has run out where you are, a prosecution may no longer be possible. That is the plain truth and we will not dress it up. 3 things are still open to you.
a timestamped report
What you write here is dated and kept. Years later, a record that existed before anyone asked for it carries weight a memory does not.
a sealed report that can match
Seal it against an identifier — a profile link, a phone, a workplace. Nobody sees it until someone else names the same person. Their case may still be inside the deadline.
a pin on the map
Publish it and the next person searching Lagos can see it. He stays an alias unless a court, the police or the press have already published his name.
Many countries also treat the clock differently when the survivor was a child, when the offence is ongoing, or when new evidence appears. A support organisation in this list can tell you whether that applies to you.
who can tell you today
People in Lagos who do this every day.
These are independent of Escrow. They know how the deadline is read in practice where you are, and they can also just talk.
Mirabel Centre (Sexual Assault Referral Centre, LASUTH)
Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA)
08137960048 (DSVA helpline)
WARIF (Women at Risk International Foundation)
sources
The deadline above came from one of these.
- Nigeria: information for victims of rape and sexual assault
UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (GOV.UK) · checked 30 August 2026
- Mirabel Centre - Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC)
Mirabel Centre / Partnership for Justice · checked 30 August 2026
- Senate Passes Bill Seeking to Amend the Criminal Code Act
Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) · checked 30 August 2026
other places
The deadline somewhere else.
If you were somewhere else in Nigeria, read the deadline for Nigeria. It covers the towns we have not written up yet.
This is information, not legal advice.
Nobody here is your lawyer. The deadline above is quoted from a source we read, and the date we read it is beside it. Laws change, and an office may read a deadline differently from the statute. For your own case, ask a lawyer or a support organisation in Lagos.
If something here is out of date, write to hello@escrow.nanocorp.app and we will check it and say when we did.
when you are ready
There is no deadline for writing it down here. A report on Escrow can be made years afterwards, and nothing happens until you say so.
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