The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, has advocated severe punishment for rapists as a way of fighting the rising cases of rape and sexual violence in Nigeria.
Mr Gbajabiamila said the stern punishment could involve “chopping off the genitals” of convicted rapists.
Speaking when he received a delegation of the Movement Against Rape and Sexual Violence at the National Assembly in Abuja, the speaker said leaders and citizens must rise against rape.
Mr Gbajabiamila, who described the rising rape cases in the Country as a pandemic, said the society, including the media, has a role to play in the fight against the pandemic.
He said Nigerians, especially those that hold religious views on rape, need adequate education and awareness against the rape pandemic.
Mr Gbajabiamila also said he believed a lot of rape cases are not reported as victims feel ashamed to speak out.
He urged the movement to make a presentation in that regard to see what can be done as financial support in the 2021 budget to be presented to the National Assembly in September.
Earlier, the wife of the Kaduna State Governor, Aisha-Ummi El-Rufai, drew the speaker’s attention to the rising cases of rape in the Country, saying it was becoming alarming and that urgent action needed to be taken.
She said the current trend is a situation where women are raped to death and butchered even in Churches and Mosques where God is worshipped.
She noted that statistics had shown that “717 reported rape cases and 7,170 unreported ones occurred in Nigeria within five months”.
She said while over 7,000 lives have been brutalised, with some destroyed and others terminated, perpetrators of such heinous acts are not brought to justice even as the laws appear to be lenient.
Modupe Arotolu
