Nigeria's Minister of Women's Affairs Pauline Tallen has called on law enforcement agencies to speed up investigations of rape after an "alarming" spike in such cases during the lockdown regime in the country.

“There has been an outcry against rape epidemic because of the lockdown," the minister said at a government meeting on Wednesday.

She said that rape cases had recently increased by a factor of three, noting that "women and children are locked down with their abusers".

All 36 states in Nigeria were affected, Ms Tallen said.

Nigerian police said on Wednesday they had arrested a man after 40 people were raped in one town over the period of a year.
A file photo of a woman