RAPE: TIME FOR STIFFER PENALTY

By Martins Adedeji

It’s the season of rape stories!!!
Both real or imagined, all join!!!
I will speak about it, no apologies.
Rape is a non consensual sexual intercourse.
The internet is boiling, we’ve seem to quickly forget about the pandemic or let me say, our anger on rape has over shadowed the virus.
Rape is a crime against humanity!!! Irrespective of Gender, we should all stand against it by constantly taking actions, advocating and preaching against Rape.

The case of late Uwa omozuwa opened a lot of carcass. Uwa was raped in the most expectedly safest and sacred place; the church. She was not only raped but also murdered in gruesome manner.
Uwa case has gotten series of reactions thereby causing other victims to begin to speak up.
While we were still on Uwa case, another one happened in Ibadan. A case of an 18 year old Barakat, an undergraduate, who was raped and murdered by supposed armed robbers.

As much as there’s no justification for rape. We need to understand that Consent is crucial. Consent can be withdrawn at any time even without any reason. We need to learn to respect people’s decisions.
Simple words or phrases like; No, Stop, I am not in the mood, I want to leave define lack of consent.
I tweeted recently that it is beyond us campaigning against rape and rapist on social media. People do not stop a crime because the society says it’s wrong or because it is a dehumane. People stop crime because they fear the consequences. If Rapist know that our laws, police and the court will frown heavily on them and most like punish them, they would stop their evil acts.
Our Legislature need to make Rape penalties stiffer, because rapist won’t be deterred by our shaming, they would be deterred by our unforgiving and rigid laws that will punish them.
In the words of Atiku Abubakar( former presidential aspirants):
It is time we reviewed the laws on rape to ensure that there are no escape routes in the investigation, prosecution, conviction and adequate punishment for this heinous crime.

Need I forget to say that while we castigate Rapist and call out actions of Rape. There are people who frame up rape accusations on innocent persons just for the sake of attention, popularity or clout chasing. This is not a good thing to do. The same truama a victim experiences is what an innocently accused person experiences.
Women need to understand that those who falsely accuse men of rape aren’t just affecting that man’s life but their fellow women as well.

Beyond trending hashtags, I posit that we should start trending solutions.