Barrister Ebere Ifendu On a lighter note, I will say that man should be killed so he will not rape another person. It’s true, they deserve the death penalty, but we can castrate them to help them be useful to the society by not raping girls because they might not be able to control themselves. […]
Barrister Ebere Ifendu
On a lighter note, I will say that man should be killed so he will not rape another person. It’s true, they deserve the death penalty, but we can castrate them to help them be useful to the society by not raping girls because they might not be able to control themselves. But really, there should be very stringent punishment for that so it will serve as a deterrent to other people. It’s a big menace. Some of the victims are babies of three months, and the culprits don’t even care. The person must be suffering from a mental problem because I don’t see any sane man doing that. So let the punishment be as stringent as the law can be. But if they bring such a man before me, I will castrate him. Ifendu is president, Women in Politics Forum
Dr. Kema Anthony
I believe the ideal punishment should be corrective. There should be some sought of psychiatric evaluation for the culprit. I am not so much into the punishment of two or three years in prison. Establishing that one committed rape is very difficult, first of all, there’s the location, whether it happened in the man’s house or not. If it’s a minor there should be a bigger punishment. When we talk about minors we should look at those below thirteen years. Sometimes you may be surprised that a fourteen-year-old went out for it. For raping one that is not a minor, there should be psychiatric evaluation and a fine, with six months or a year sentence. But we need to be careful, because most of the things we call rape in this country do not pass as such, especially when it happens in a man’s house.
Anthony for the NGO, AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Maryam Laushi, gender activist
I think that a good punishment for perpetrators of rape is 5 years jail time. It is a serious crime and should be treated as such. Although, I believe the bigger problems are with reporting of the cases to law enforcement, their response to the reports and conviction in courts. There should also be a permanent sex offenders list available and updated nationwide so that people who have committed such crimes will be on record in case of repeat offending and for the safety of all.
Laushi is a gender activist and communications strategist
Bassim Wahbi Ibrahim, construction worker
A rapist should be sentenced to death simply because it is an act that haunts the victim for life. There is no recovering from it. The thought of it alone is horrible. He has the option of paying for satisfaction but rather he violates an innocent person for his or her selfish desires, which alone is enough of a reason for someone to pay the price with his or her life.
Shelly Chinwe Ogbu, Biochemist
Rape is a crime, whether the culprit is a stranger, acquaintance, date,f riend or family member. It is sexual assault, it is not about love or sex, it is about power in which a rapist uses actual or threatened force or violence to exert control over another person. Some rapists use drugs or alcohol to take away a person’s ability to fight back.
Forced or unwanted sexual intercourse can happen to both males and females of any age. Many victims of rape and sexual assault blame themselves and are often made to feel, by the abuser, that it was their fault and many also feel guilty because they didn’t fight back.
It is very important to remember that the victim is never at fault and never to blame and the responsibility and blame is on the head of the abuser. If a criminal case is pursued by authorities, prosecuting a rapist must be carried out in order to help the authorities put the abuser away were he or she cannot repeat the crime. Not allowing people get away with such a crime shows that they have no right to abuse a person.
One of the first steps toward abolishing capital punishment altogether is making sure that molesters and rapists do not go unpunished, one to five years’ imprisonment, depending on the age and the act. I do not agree with paying a fine because this will make them feel they can buy their way out no matter what. Sentencing may appear harsh to some, but what about the trauma the victim is left with?
Ogbu is founder of Weinspire, an NGO that handles issues of child rape and human trafficking
Amarachi Agubata, Youth Corper
Rapists are criminals and so they should be imprisoned for at least ten years with hard labour in order to get justice for the victim that he or she raped.
Edache Jeremiah Omadachi, Political Scientist
The punishment a rapist should get is jail term of at least a year or two so that they learn their lesson for the crime they have committed. But killing them is a harsh punishment.
