Amidst the outrage of Nigerians on social media over the incessant news of girls being raped in the country, the Nigeria Senate President, Ahmad Lawan has joined his voice with Nigerians on stiffer penalties for rape in the country.
Lawan said this in his concluding remarks following a motion raised to condemn the increasing cases of rape and devilish brutality against the girl-child in Nigeria.
The Senate President believes the penalties in Nigeria’s penal code would serve as a deterrent to all those involved in the act.
“We stand together shoulder to shoulder on this and I think we need to make the penalties for rape stiffer to be sufficient deterrent for those who are involved in this, or who even desire to be involved. We have to save our future, and these girls and women are the future of this nation,” the Senate President said.
Earlier, Senator Sandy Onor (PDP, Cross River Central), on May 26, 2020, moved the motion on “increasing cases of rape and brutality against the girl child in Nigeria” when a girl was hit by a bullet from a policeman in Lagos.
According to the lawmaker, “Efforts to save Tina proved futile as she passed on two days later at a hospital.”
The lawmaker also cited another incident, “on Wednesday, 27th May 2020, a first year undergraduate of University of Benin, Miss Uwa Omozuwa, was brutalised and raped at her church where she went to study in the evening of that day”
She also added, “Brutality and rape cases against the girl-child in Nigeria are on the rise, with some of these cases reported and several others, admittedly unreported.
“Our young girls may no longer have the confidence to live their normal lives.
“The average young girl in Nigeria is obviously becoming terrified and scared to live with and trust her close male relatives and neighbours.”
The Senate in its resolutions implored the State Houses of Assembly to review the penal and criminal codes, so as to make the penalties stiffer, which would, in turn, serve as a deterrent to perpetrators.
