R*pists To Get Life Imprisonment

rape

If a bill currently in the works in the Senate, sponsored by Senator Chris Anyanwu eventually becomes law, any person convicted of raping a girl below the age of 18 will be liable to life imprisonment, and anyone found culpable in any other s*xual assault as well as engagement of children in prostitution will be committed to imprisonment not below the period of 10 years.

Also, conviction for child pornography and administration of substance with the intention to overpower another person for s*xual activities will result in five years and 10 years imprisonment respectively.

While presenting a lead debate on the bill, which passed second reading in the Senate yesterday, Anyanwu said the need to evolve the bill had become imperative in view of the rampant cases of r*pe and the attendant trauma for victims in the country.

“Hardly any day passes without reports in the media of one form of abhorrent sexual crime or the other, ranging from rape, defilement of children, animism among others; children and young people of this country, both male and female, today face a growing danger as they are being routinely targeted by sexual predators and pedophiles who take advantage of their vulnerability and innocence, etching on their psyche scars that last a lifetime. What is most disturbing is that a growing number of these crimes are happening in schools and religious environments,” Anyanwu said.

She listed cases of s*xual abuse to include gang-r*pe, s*xual tourism, s*xual harassment, deliberate transmission of HIV or other s*xually transmitted diseases, culture or religious s*xual offences, non-disclosure of conviction of s*xual offences and administration of substance to stupefy.

Senator Ita Enang, however, argued that the bill was defective on two grounds and therefore could only be appropriate for residents of Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

According to him, “Other states already had their various laws including the FCT. It would bring the Senate to ridicule if it makes a law to duplicate an existing law.” Instead, he said it would be improper to amend or repeal the existing laws since punishments were stipulated in the penal and criminal codes of various states.

But Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the session disagreed with Enang, citing a Supreme Court judgment which he said ruled that Senate laws would supersede existing laws in the states.