Wanted: Stiffer sanctions for sex thieves
By Clem Oluwole
Perhaps, no Nigerian columnist has devoted more space, time and energy to the rape phenomenon in recent years than yours truly. Since my days at the LEADERSHIP as a columnist to this day, I have written tons of words recent years about the global menace and proffered several solutions. One of them is the use of razor blades by victims under penile attack. I had recommended the razor solution based on the experience of a Bangladeshi woman named Monju Begum. On June 4, 2011, a sex robber sneaked into her compound to steal her dignity and abuse her womanhood. Using her feminine sense, she disarmed the robber of his weapon, rushed it to the nearest police station to lodge a complaint and presented the weapon, dripping with blood, as proof.
I was quick to point out that the Bangladeshi solution would amount to dragging the law into their own hands but unfortunately, the extant law is not severe enough to rein in the maniacs’ weapons of mass destruction. And where the legislation leaves one vulnerable to attack such as the one in question, you would not blame any victim aping Monju Begum’s self-help philosophy.
A Papua New Guinean teenager recently went a step further than what the Bangladeshi woman did by bringing down the head of her own father. According to media reports, the girl eventually beheaded her dad using a bush knife after he raped her severally overnight. The incestuous dad finally lost his life next morning when he went for more rounds. It was at that point that the traumatized girl felt that the world would be a better place without a sexually demented man like her father. That is my girl!
The leaders of the community in which the victim lives have decided to protect the girl from the long arm of the law by refusing to hand her over to the police, insisting that the rapist dad deserved what he got. A pastor in the settlement, Lucas Kumi, told reporters that the dad, who was in his mid-40s and had three other kids, fell on his own daughter on the fateful night when the rest of the family members were away on visitation to some relatives in another location.
Pastor Kumi said the father went to his daughter’s room in the night and abused her over and over again. Possessed by the spirit of Oliver Twist, the rapist dad wanted more in the morning and it was at that point that the disgusted girl reached for the bush knife and chopped off his head. The girl promptly announced the tragic incident to the community leaders who rushed into the room to behold the headless corpse and they swore to shield her from the law.
Violent crimes as well as witchcraft are rife in the poverty-stricken Pacific nation and the government has recently voted to revive the death penalty in a bid to deter offenders after a rash of high-profile grisly incidents across the country, including rape.
The killing of the rapist dad is a throwback to the epic horror/thriller movie, I Spit on Your Grave, released in 1978. The movie was inspired by the horrific encounter of a writer who was repeatedly gang-raped, humiliated and left for the dead by four men whom she systematically hunted down to seek revenge.
Before the macabre episode in Papua New Guinea, several incidents of rape have dotted the Nigerian landscape. I have even found it difficult to keep tabs on them. And they warrant the introduction of a more severe sanction than the life imprisonment which I heard Representative Beni Lar talking about a couple of weeks ago.
As I have always insisted, rapists are worse than armed robbers. Armed robbers target money which can be recovered or remade; sex thieves strip their victims of their dignity. Some victims have had to commit suicide because they could not contend with the shame, disgrace and dishonour associated with the abuse of their womanhood.
Sex fiends are waxing stronger in this country and Nigerian leaders are looking the other way and leaving the victims to their own fate…as if it is an organised pleasure. Victims cut across all ages. There are instances when infants have been abused by older men including their fathers as exemplified by the dastardly act of a retired naval officer in Lagos who was caught in 2010 tossing his 2-year-old daughter up and down on his laps. At first, it was thought he was doing so in a lullaby as the poor girl yelled in agony. The cruel ex-naval officer was mired in incest and he almost rendered his little girl asunder in the process.
There was also a weird incident precipitated by a 25-year-old man named Munnir Goma of Yelwa Village in Matazu Local Government Area of Katsina state who fell on an old woman, aged 85, and lacerated her dormant groove. But why would a young man bed an octogenarian? It might not be for the sole purpose of pleasuring his body. Perhaps, he did that so that the longevity of the woman could rub off him. Some rapists choose to fall on the under-aged in the belief that it would give them power, wealth, protection and even prolonged existence.
The phenomenon of rape is underreported in this country. This is largely due to the fact that families tend to protect their daughters who have been defiled or raped from public stigma. Such secrecy has enabled rapists to escape justice. Besides, the country treats rapists with kid gloves. As I stated earlier on, rape is punishable by life imprisonment with the possible addition of “koboko”. And because the law is rarely enforced, the criminals multiply in number. Today, these social vermin have become so emboldened that they prey as a gang, raping their victims to death in some cases.
The womenfolk should be told in plain language that this is their battle. The men, from whose rank the criminals are bred, cannot fight the battle for them. They should not behave like the cruel Emperor Nero who fiddled with his harp while Rome burnt. The Ministries of Women Affairs at the federal and state levels, the female ministers and women commissioners, the First Lady and her counterparts in the states, all female lawmakers at the local, state and federal levels, all professional women organizations and other concerned citizens should take up the gauntlet and challenge these sex robbers.
Sex thieves deserve stiffer sanctions like death penalty. In this internet age where every Tom, Dick and Harry has unfettered access to pornography, the appetite and imagination of these sex robbers are easily fired up. The consequences are the cruel scenario currently playing out across the land.
A Papua New Guinean teenager recently went a step further than what the Bangladeshi woman did by bringing down the head of her own father. According to media reports, the girl eventually beheaded her dad using a bush knife after he raped her severally overnight. The incestuous dad finally lost his life next morning when he went for more rounds. It was at that point that the traumatized girl felt that the world would be a better place without a sexually demented man like her father. That is my girl!
The leaders of the community in which the victim lives have decided to protect the girl from the long arm of the law by refusing to hand her over to the police, insisting that the rapist dad deserved what he got. A pastor in the settlement, Lucas Kumi, told reporters that the dad, who was in his mid-40s and had three other kids, fell on his own daughter on the fateful night when the rest of the family members were away on visitation to some relatives in another location.
Pastor Kumi said the father went to his daughter’s room in the night and abused her over and over again. Possessed by the spirit of Oliver Twist, the rapist dad wanted more in the morning and it was at that point that the disgusted girl reached for the bush knife and chopped off his head. The girl promptly announced the tragic incident to the community leaders who rushed into the room to behold the headless corpse and they swore to shield her from the law.
Violent crimes as well as witchcraft are rife in the poverty-stricken Pacific nation and the government has recently voted to revive the death penalty in a bid to deter offenders after a rash of high-profile grisly incidents across the country, including rape.
The killing of the rapist dad is a throwback to the epic horror/thriller movie, I Spit on Your Grave, released in 1978. The movie was inspired by the horrific encounter of a writer who was repeatedly gang-raped, humiliated and left for the dead by four men whom she systematically hunted down to seek revenge.
Before the macabre episode in Papua New Guinea, several incidents of rape have dotted the Nigerian landscape. I have even found it difficult to keep tabs on them. And they warrant the introduction of a more severe sanction than the life imprisonment which I heard Representative Beni Lar talking about a couple of weeks ago.
As I have always insisted, rapists are worse than armed robbers. Armed robbers target money which can be recovered or remade; sex thieves strip their victims of their dignity. Some victims have had to commit suicide because they could not contend with the shame, disgrace and dishonour associated with the abuse of their womanhood.
Sex fiends are waxing stronger in this country and Nigerian leaders are looking the other way and leaving the victims to their own fate…as if it is an organised pleasure. Victims cut across all ages. There are instances when infants have been abused by older men including their fathers as exemplified by the dastardly act of a retired naval officer in Lagos who was caught in 2010 tossing his 2-year-old daughter up and down on his laps. At first, it was thought he was doing so in a lullaby as the poor girl yelled in agony. The cruel ex-naval officer was mired in incest and he almost rendered his little girl asunder in the process.
There was also a weird incident precipitated by a 25-year-old man named Munnir Goma of Yelwa Village in Matazu Local Government Area of Katsina state who fell on an old woman, aged 85, and lacerated her dormant groove. But why would a young man bed an octogenarian? It might not be for the sole purpose of pleasuring his body. Perhaps, he did that so that the longevity of the woman could rub off him. Some rapists choose to fall on the under-aged in the belief that it would give them power, wealth, protection and even prolonged existence.
The phenomenon of rape is underreported in this country. This is largely due to the fact that families tend to protect their daughters who have been defiled or raped from public stigma. Such secrecy has enabled rapists to escape justice. Besides, the country treats rapists with kid gloves. As I stated earlier on, rape is punishable by life imprisonment with the possible addition of “koboko”. And because the law is rarely enforced, the criminals multiply in number. Today, these social vermin have become so emboldened that they prey as a gang, raping their victims to death in some cases.
The womenfolk should be told in plain language that this is their battle. The men, from whose rank the criminals are bred, cannot fight the battle for them. They should not behave like the cruel Emperor Nero who fiddled with his harp while Rome burnt. The Ministries of Women Affairs at the federal and state levels, the female ministers and women commissioners, the First Lady and her counterparts in the states, all female lawmakers at the local, state and federal levels, all professional women organizations and other concerned citizens should take up the gauntlet and challenge these sex robbers.
Sex thieves deserve stiffer sanctions like death penalty. In this internet age where every Tom, Dick and Harry has unfettered access to pornography, the appetite and imagination of these sex robbers are easily fired up. The consequences are the cruel scenario currently playing out across the land.
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