LEKAN OLABULO delves into the raging issue of rape in Lagos.
In Lagos, the offence of rape carries a life sentence, yet residents are not backing down on the act. According to an official figure from the state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, in the first 10 weeks of the new year (January to mid-March 2021), a total of 91 rape and defilement cases were recorded.
The police described the rising number as worrisome.
The police chief said the frightening figure was apart from the 127 cases of gender-based incidents reported during the period under review.
Perhaps more worrisome is the discovery by Saturday Tribune that the high number of rape cases recorded by the police did not even factor in scores of unreported rape cases in different parts of the state. Many of such cases were reportedly swept under the carpet for various reasons.
It was also gathered that relatives and families of some of the victims decided to settle out of court, with the state police command giving the assurance that efforts were being made to stem the ugly tide.
Almost on a daily basis, the police in the state are inundated with cases of rape and defilement. Days after Odumosu raised the alarm, police operatives attached to Festac Division, on 3 April, 2021, at about 3.00 p.m., arrested one Jonas Nnubia, 43, for allegedly defiling his wife’s niece at 1st Avenue, L Close, Festac.
The victim, who was taken to the police station in company with officials of the Child Protection Network, Lagos State, alleged that the suspect had defiled her several times and threatened her against disclosing his criminal act to anyone.
The victim was subsequently taken to an undisclosed hospital for medical examination, which the police said would help in carrying out a thorough investigation into the matter.
Another worrisome dimension to the crime is the rape of minors by equally underage culprits, although such cases have not attracted as much attention as those involving adults. The alleged treatment of such cases with kid gloves is said to be a cause for concern for stakeholders.
Last year, a woman was arrested in the Sade Street area of Epe for allegedly aiding the escape of his son who raped a nine-year old schoolgirl that was sent on an errand by her mother. The incident almost degenerated into a crisis as residents of the area attempted jungle justice on the woman. The culprit was eventually arrested and made to face the wrath of the law. But incidents of rape and defilement have continued unabated in the state despite campaigns from different advocacy groups and the against the vice.
What the law says
Of the five different sets of laws governing rape and defilement prosecution in Nigeria, three are specifically applicable to Lagos State, according to popular law blog, LawPadi. The five are the Criminal Code which is applicable in all southern states; Penal Code, which is only applicable in the North; Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act, applicable in the Federal Capital Territory and the Criminal Laws of Lagos, which is peculiar to the state.
There is also Child’s Rights Act, which is applicable in states that domesticated it. Lagos State domesticated it in 2007 and labelled it Child’s Rights Law.
Both the Criminal Code (CC) and Criminal Laws of Lagos (CLL) have similar definitions for rape. According to the Criminal Code, rape is when any person has sexual intercourse with a woman or girl without her consent or with incorrectly-obtained consent.
Consent can be incorrectly obtained by force, threat, intimidation, means of false and fraudulent representation as to the nature of the act by a person impersonating a married woman’s husband in order to have sex.
Under Criminal Code, intercourse with underage girls or people with unsound mind is the offence of defilement and so, technicallya person could be charged for rape and defilement.
The Lagos law says rape “is sexual intercourse with a woman or girl without her consent or with incorrectly-obtained consent.
Consent can be incorrectly obtained where it is obtained by force, impersonation, threat or intimidation of any kind, by means of false and fraudulent representation as to the nature of the act.”
The Penal Code, Criminal Laws of Lagos, explicitly states that sexual intercourse by a man with his wife cannot be unlawful and therefore a man cannot rape his wife.
In all the laws, rape happens when the vagina of the woman is penetrated. However, this does not mean that an unlawful sexual intercourse is allowed. This is a crime and is covered under different descriptions in each legislation.
The penalty for rape across all the laws is life imprisonment, although it is not a mandatory sentence in cases.
In countries like the United States of America, the central definition of rape has been altered to cover both male and female victims.
A survivor’s story
Celebrated journalist and campaigner against rape and other social vices, Juliana Francis, spoke to Saturday Tribune about being a rape survivour and her on-the-field experiences covering major rape cases and interactions with victims.
She said: “In most police formations in Lagos State, there are no gender desks where the personnel have been trained on how to investigate these heinous crimes and interview the survivors. The way the police carry out interrogation is not same way to interview tape survivors. There is the need for empathy because speaking up about your rape experience is not always easy. I should know.
I’m a survivor myself.
“When a rape victim/survivor is not given the proper treatment, he or she may become a perp (perpetrator). Rape will continue to happen and increase because wives cover their husbands’ crimes because they don’t want them to go to jail. Mothers protect the crimes of their sons and community members and family members prefer to ‘settle’ the matter among themselves.”
On the growing cases, she said: “We have more cases of defilement than rape in Nigeria, not just Lagos State. We shouldn’t make it a Lagos State problem; rape and defilement have become a major problem in Nigeria and as such, should be a source of concern to right-thinking Nigerians.
“Let’s also not forget the rising cases of fathers, who ordinarily should protect their daughters from rapists, becoming the monsters violating their daughters, thereby traumatising these children.
“In fact, the most worrisome development now to those of us monitoring the rape and defilement space is the increasing cases of minors sexually violating minors or, for better understanding, minors raping minors.
“Every day, a child and adult are raped and each day, new dimensions to rape emerge. We are now aware that boys are also raped, defiled and serially violated by men and women. There was a time I did a report on a female school teacher who happened to be married and had about four children who was arrested for allegedly performing oral sex on one of her male pupils.
“It is really hard for anyone to pinpoint or state with empirical evidence the real causes of rape. But most psychologists have agreed that one of the causes is the urge to dominate and the belief that you can take whatever you want from a victim, whenever you want and however. But personally, I believe that it goes beyond this. We need to begin to address this issue by adopting a holistic approach, including looking at mental and social factors. Most perpetrators were once victims or survivors.”
Perplexing Francis said: “How do we explain a biological father sleeping with his 12-year-old daughter and telling the world that he fell in love with her; that his wife, the biological mother of the girl, was looking too old for him? Or how do we explain a situation whereby a father sexually violates his three-year old daughter?
“They commit this crime even though they know that with little money, they could find sexual satisfaction from prostitutes. How do we explain the reason why the general overseer and owner of four churches repeatedly raped his daughter, impregnated and carried out abortions for her? He refused to stop until the girl ran away from home. It took time to convince the girl to tell us her story. We got the police involved. She looked scared and traumatised. She was fidgeting and refused to look us straight in the eyes. She must have been ashamed, but she was a victim, a survivor.
“But at that point, like most victims, she was mentally blaming herself and thinking and believing that she must have done something to trigger her dad converting her to his wife following the death of their mother.
“What about the case of a father who was sleeping with his four daughters, including a married one, the youngest of them a secondary school student with the full knowledge of their mother?”
On what should be done to curb the high incidence of rape, Ms Francis said: “The Lagos State government has opened a register for convicted violators but it should go a step further by publishing their names and pictures in some national dailies. There should be a government website where their names and pictures should be kept forever, ike a database. Also, the state government has so many laws in place to check these crimes, the judiciary shouldn’t be shy in executing them.
“How many rapists have been given life imprisonment? We need to be serious about this. We should walk the talk. The state government should be proactive in creating more state-funded shelters for survivors.
“Furthermore, more policemen should be trained and made to know that when it comes to rape and defilement, they cannot cut corners or collect bribe to truncate the case in order for a perpetrator to walk. Any police personnel found doing this should be dismissed because we need to build trust.
“If a survivor doesn’t trust the system and doesn’t get justice because of the greed of a particular policeman or policewoman, it becomes a problem for the whole criminal justice system. There shouldn’t be mediation in cases of rape. The perpetrators should be allowed to have their day in court. My advice is that everyone should become an advocate, with the sole mission of kicking this heinous crime out of our society.”
It is troubling but we are tackling it –Police
The image maker of the state police command, Muyiwa Adejobi, while speaking on the rising cases of rape and defilement, said: “Itsl is worrisome. The menace of rape or defilement has been on the high side and we have taken certain steps to tackle it. The command has the gender unit at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti and juvenile and women centres across the state to handle and attend to cases like this. Our officers and men at these offices are trained personnel who are competent to carry out detailed investigation into any reported cases. We work closely with government agencies and NGOs in this regard.
“Members of the public have also been involved in many areas, especially sensitisation, to reduce social stigma, encourage victims to report, encourage families of victims to come out and rally round the victims, better medical examinations and attention and the likes.”
Adejobi gave the assurance that “the command is not resting on its oars in fighting the menace of rape. Many cases are in court and many will still be charged to court in due course.”
A psychologist’s standpoint Sex, according to Professor Oni Fagboungbe of the Department of Psychology, University of Lagos (UNILAG), is a physiological need which is engaged in by human beings and lower animals.
But unlike humans, lower animals, he said, seek the consent of their partners before they meet for fertilisation.
Airing his view on rape and its consequences for the society, victims and rapists, the don said: “Let’s start by saying sex is a physiological need like food but as human beings, we live in an organised society, hence our behaviour is controlled. Even among animals, they don’t have sex for doing sake. They seek the consent of their partners and that is why they meet when the female is in need of sperm for fertilisation.
“Let us start by looking at the society as a system just like the human body. When something is a system, any part of it that is affected will impact on the system as a whole and that is why if a blade cuts your little finger, the pain will be felt in the body as a whole.
“Looking at crime, particularly rape, in the society, if we look at the generality of the society, crime has affected the nooks and crannies of the society. The politician steals the common wealth and makes empty promises. Kidnappers kidnap at random. You will find ritualists kidnapping the people for rituals and the rapists committing the inhuman acts to satisfy their selfish desires.
“There is no doubt that crime rate is increasing in Nigeria, including rape, especially in Lagos State. What do we do about this? There is a psychology theory that addresses things occurring at random. We call it law of effect, Thunders’ Law of Effect. It says any stimulus that brings pleasure will be maximised while the one that brings pains will be minimised.
“This theory affects all organisms, including lower animals like rats, including plants. Why is the incidence of rape increasing?
There is deterrent factor.
“The law is made and written on paper but until it is implemented, that is when we can say there is a law in place. There is no implementation and that is why I quoted the law of effect. Here in Nigeria, criminals are celebrated. It is in Nigeria that politicians stole and they are jailed but they spend their term in their sitting room.
“This is a country where a victim of rape runs to the police station to report a rape incident and the officer will say, ‘didn’t you enjoy it?’ There is no deterrent factor. The law is not implemented. Those engaging in rape know that by the time they bribe the police, the case will go away. For instance, if a thug belonging to any of the political parties commits a rape, by the time he talks with his godfather, he will be let off the hook.
“Unqualified sense of immunity is pervading the society and so people are committing crimes with impunity. There is no little crime, crime is crime. But what happened to those that have been caught, were they jailed? And the ladies who are the victims of rape, do they have the courage to come out to narrate and report their ordeals? There is the fear of stigmatisation and sometimes, they threaten them.
“There is stimulus response connectivity. When you dress and then you are almost exposing your body parts all for the sake of civilisation or new school, any man who sees such, his brain will go into operation. The major thing is that the law against rape is not effectively implemented.”
Speaking on the consequences of rape on the victim, he said it has multiple effects, depending on the personality makeup of the victim.
Professor Fagboungbe said: “It could lead to hatred of men by the victim. The victim could become sexually-frigid, that is, she nowfears sex and goes to affect her matrimonial home. The victim can also become a problem to the society that he or she would want to take her pound of flesh. When you are frustrated, the frustration manifests in twofold. Frustration produces aggression. It can be an aggression directed at oneself or directed to the society.
“If it is an aggression directed to the society, she will be seen trafficking in young ladies or be seen using them to make money under the pretext of training them in skill acquisition.The government should be more serious in implementing the existing laws.”
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