Over 20 Rape Cases Reported In Ibadan Monthly

There are over 20 reported cases in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, monthly, the News Agency of Nigeria reports. A survey by a correspondent in Ibadan showed that the menace is fast assuming a dangerous dimension with reported abuse of minors.
James Ajibola, the legal adviser to the Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ) Oyo state chapter, one of those polled in the survey, said that rape was one of the social vices currently ravaging the society. He said that aside from the fact that it has become an aberration, under-aged girls are now major targets of rapists, leaving their victims with horrible experiences.
The legal practitioner said that the Nigeria constitution defines rape and spells out penalties for culprits which range from two to 14 years jail term, depending on the severity of the crime or court’s discretion. He said that it was very difficult to give an accurate statistic of rape cases, because of a number of factors.
According to him, the intervention by various people to settle rape cases out of court had contributed to seeing rapists go unpunished and thus encouraged more rape cases.
“Over 20 new rape cases are recorded on a monthly basis in Ibadan alone, with only one out of 100 per cent rape cases receiving diligent prosecution,” he said. Intimidation and poverty on the part of the victims, he noted, were other reasons why rapists go free. In his own submission, Benjamin Olley, a lecturer at the Department of Psychology, University of Ibadan, described rapists as insane. He wondered why the quest for power and materialism should result into the destruction of innocent and under-aged girls.
“The situation in which men have sexual intercourse with under-aged girls is abnormal,” he said. He recommended that psychiatric tests be carried out on rapists, wondering why any man, in the name of ritual or power, would defile the opposite sex. Mr. Olley noted that the act had many negative implications for the victims.
“They are exposed to various sexually transmitted diseases and more often than not, they lose their self-esteem or could even become promiscuous,” he said. A rape victim who gave her horrible experience in court during a cross examination felt dejected in her account.
The victim, a 25-year old undergraduate student of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, said that the rapist threatened to behead her if she refused to allow him. The two-month pregnant lady narrated that the culprit had other men who collaborated with him to ensure that the illicit act was carried out on her in spite of her plea. “When I was shouting, some men were there, but did not help me,” she said