- ASUU canvasses life jail for convicts
BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA –Nigeria’s Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, has challenged law enforcement agencies to expedite action on rape cases to ensure perpetrators are made to pay for their crimes.
Tallen spoke against the backdrop of a spike in the number of rape-related cases during coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown, even as Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) organised rallies to protest increasing cases of sexual violence and high-profile rapes in the country.
This is as her call for urgent action and severe punishment for rapists received support from the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) that insist Federal Government must impose life sentence on convicted persons.
Raising concerns over the highly volatile issue while briefing newsmen after this week’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, the Minister said President Muhammadu Buhari is fully supportive of tough measures to curb the dastardly act.
According to her; “Government will take decisive action at the highest level to protect women and children in this country.”
Tallen noted that rapes had reached an “alarming rate” three times the typical level as women and children were locked down with their abusers.
“Every state in Nigeria is affected. We are calling for legal intervention.”
She said; “From details that we have, there are hundred of cases that are within our courts that have not been addressed and out of each one case, be sure that there are 10 that have not been reported.”
Earlier in the week, the Inspector General of Police, IGP Adamu Mohammed had ordered the immediate deployment of additional investigators to specialist gender violence desks of the Force.
Also throwing its weight behind calls for severity of sanctions following increased cases of rape nationwide, Chairman of ASUU at Olusegun Agagu University of Science and technology (OAUSTECH), Okitipupa, Ondo State, Dr Dipo Akomolafe, said life imprisonment would curb the criminal act in the country.
Akomolafe told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Okitipupa that rape cases were rising because government was not enforcing the Criminal Code which recommended life imprisonment for convicted rapists and 14 years for attempted rape.
He said; “Rape is a condemnable act which should not be tolerated in a decent society. Of recent, rape has been on alarming increase as most of the victims are killed by the peretrators who are, at times, known persons or family relations, in order just to cover their heineous crime.
“There is a law prohibiting rape and making it a criminal offence. Nigeria’s Criminal Code recommends life imprisonment for those convicted for rape and 14 years for attempted rape.”
Maintaining that punishments prescribed in the existing laws are adequate to create fear in the minds of potential perpetrators, if only the government can enforce them, the University lecturer said; “This will also reduce the act of rape and attempted rape in the society.” – With NAN reports
