Nigeria’s House of Representatives, on Thursday, voted against castration as punishment for sex offenders in the country.
During Thursday’s plenary, a member, Hon. James Faleke, had suggested that persons found guilty of rape should have the genitals disengaged.
In his response, Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajamiala, asked what would happen if a woman was found guilty of the offence, seeing that there was nothing to remove from the woman, as compared to her male counterpart.
Thereafter, there was a voice vote on whether castration should be used as a means to punish offenders. The ‘nay’ won the vote.
The House later concluded that instead of deliberating on the appropriate punishment for sex offenders, they would all dress in black on the next legislative day in solidarity with those who had been raped and possibly murdered.
It would be recalled that an undergraduate of University of Benin, Miss. Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, was recently raped and murdered inside a church where she went to study, in Benin, Edo State.
Also, Barakat Bello, a student of Science Laboratory Technology at the Federal College of Animal Health and Production, Ibadan, Oyo State, was attacked, raped, and stabbed to death right in her home by unknown men.
Also, a 12-year-old girl was serially raped by 12 men for two months in Jigawa State.