Child marriage and sex with girls below 13 years is a crime

Originally, man by nature is beastly. The evolution of the modern man, homa sapiens, led to a gradual organized communal brotherhood where rules are set to guide the actions and interactions of members of the community. Every Nigerian girl/lady/woman has a right to dignity of her person and privacy guaranteed and protected by virtue of the provisions of sections 34 and 37 of the 1999 Constitution.  These constitutional bulwarks formed the foundation of the law prohibiting defilement and rape, which are States crimes. All the States in Nigeria have similar provisions criminalizing defilement and rape in their Criminal or Penal Codes. Section 34(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 provides that “Every individual is entitled to respect for the dignity of his person and accordingly (a) no person shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment”.Also, section 37 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 “The privacy of citizens, their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations and telegraphic communications is hereby guaranteed.”

For example section 218 of the Criminal Code of Delta State states that “Any person who has unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl under the age of eleven years is guilty of a felony, and is liable to imprisonment for life.” By section 219 of the said Criminal Code, same life imprisonment is prescribed when an owner of a house or any remises permits such defilement to take place in the premises.  It is not a defence in law for any person arrested for defilement of a girl under 11 years of age to postulate that the girl consented to the sexual intercourse or that she did not complain. The reason for this is simple. At the age of 11 a child is presumed to lack the capacity to make any informed decision affecting his/her life or well-being. Such a person is to attain the age of legal responsibility prescribed by law.

The law prescribes a punishment of two years if the suspect or Defendant “believed on reasonable grounds” that the girl was 13 years old as at the time the crime occurred.

Considering the fast increasing rate of moral decadence in the society the need to ensure that the girl-child is always protected from sex predators cannot be over-emphasized. It is therefore legally impossible for a girl under the age of 13 years to contract or be contracted out in marriage to an adult male.  Doing so will be engaging in Child Marriage. By virtue of the Child’s Rights Act, child marriage is prohibited anywhere in Nigeria. The parents and/or guardians of the child involved in these sexual trade or child marriage are culpable and liable to be prosecuted under the relevant Criminal Code or Child’s Rights Act.

A sad trend in Nigeria is that it is only girls from less privileged homes that are usually the victims of child rape and child marriages. Poverty is now being weaponized against the less privileged class. Therefore, there must be conscious efforts at heightening awareness on the rights of the girl-child and sex education and same must also be incorporated into the curricula of Primary and Secondary Schools. This will help the girl-child to understand the characters of sex predators and how to avoid them.

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