A case of bad laws
According to an eye witness account, the girl was enticed by the farmer’s promise of fresh maize and thus quickly rushed home to drop the vegetables with her mum. While returning to the garden to collect the maize, the little girl took her younger brother along to keep her company. Safiyanu Musa who was anxiously […]
According to an eye witness account, the girl was enticed by the farmer’s promise of fresh maize and thus quickly rushed home to drop the vegetables with her mum. While returning to the garden to collect the maize, the little girl took her younger brother along to keep her company. Safiyanu Musa who was anxiously waiting for the girl’s return told her on arrival at his garden to remove her wrapper and pants. The girl vehemently refused but Safiyanu threatened to kill her if she raised any alarms. The irresponsible man then forcefully removed the girl’s wrapper and pants and carried out his cruelty on her. This, in brief, is the story of how a 70-year-old man lured a 9-year- old girl to his garden and raped her.
The police charged Safiyanu to Yan Azara Magistrate court in Tudun wada, Zaria with the medical report obtained from the Gambo Sawaba General Hospital. The court’s judgment, which was delivered on March 22nd, 2010 sentenced Safiyanu Musa to four weeks imprisonment or a fine of N15, 000 only”. We do not only sympathize with the father of the girl, Malam Magaji Mai Yankan Farce, who said he lacks the means to appeal against the judgment but also concur with his disappointment over the un-deterring sentence passed on the culprit.
A critical examination of the sentence passed in this case prompts two fundamental theories. It reveals a case of faulty laws and a faulty judgment. Section 282 of the Penal Code, which is the legal document used in the administration of justice in the Northern part of Nigeria defines rape and further legislates against it in section 284 by providing that “whoever has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to fourteen years and shall also be liable to fine”. The expression “for a term which may extend to fourteen years” is so open that it allows for even “a day” to fit in to the interpretation of “a term which may extend to fourteen years”. A law that allows for such semantic manipulation of provisions in a serious crime like rape is certainly a bad law. If those who drafted and adopted this particular section of the Penal Code had actually wanted to deter potential offenders from committing the wicked crime of rape, they would have been definite in the period of jail term to be served by any person found guilty of rape. Section 284, like many other laws in the Penal Code, plays little or no deterring role.
If the relevant section of the Penal Code under reference provides that a person found guilty of rape shall be punished by imprisonment and “shall also be liable to fine”; this column is prompted to fault the judgment delivered in the case against Safiyanu Musa, which as reported in Weekly Trust, gave him an option to pay a fine of N15, 000 only. What is fifteen thousand naira compared to the damages suffered by a victim of rape? A rape victim is prone to suffer from genital mutilations; Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) including HIV/AIDS; and more devastatingly from the effect of psychological trauma that could result in sexual phobia. These, of course, are in addition to stigma particularly where the incident becomes public knowledge.
Considering the damages suffered by rape victims, we do not think that it would be too harsh to pronounce death sentence for anyone found guilty of the crime. The preceding discourse calls for the review of the Penal Code by various State governments in the Northern part of the country through their respective houses of assembly. If shari’ah were sincerely in operation in those states that claim to have adopted it for administering justice; a 4-week sentence or a fine of fifteen thousand naira couldn’t have been close to the judgment in a confirmed case of rape. What we perhaps have in many of such states is “shari’ah without law”. If there were complaints that shari’ah was tampered with during colonial administration in northern Nigeria, what reasons have our leaders got to explain their refusal to review such laws fifty years after their departure from our lands?
The rampant cases of rape in nearly all parts of the country are quite disturbing. The factor may not be unconnected with the faulty or weak laws against it. Rape, which is a deviant behavior, is worst when the victim is a minor. We suggest that perpetrators of the crime should be subjected to psychiatric tests even before their trial begins, because we find it incredible that a man who by age is close to his grave is indulging in the act of rape. May Allah (SWT) give our leaders as executives or legislators the wisdom to review the punishment for offenders if we desire to stem the crime, amin.