People of Rivers State on Friday condemned the cases of rape across the country and said that there should be severe punishment for rape offenders.
About two weeks ago a first-year student of the University of Benin was raped inside a church and she died later in hospital from injuries inflicted on her by the rapists.
Those who reacted to the issue of rape on Hard Facts Programme on Nigeria Info 92.3FM on Friday said that there should be severe punishment for rapists to check the trend.
Those who reacted agreed that the rape victim should not be blamed for the act of rape.
A caller Chris said that those who commit the offence of rape should be castrated.
Another caller said that he was opposed to castration but suggested those who commit rape should be given life sentence.
The caller said: “I want to condemn rape in its entirety in the strongest terms. Rape is bad and should not be thought of let alone carrying out the act. But as much as rape is bad, I want to say whoever is recommending castration in the 21st century needs to have to look at himself very well. It’s barbaric. Of course, one can recommend maximum prison sentence for the offender.”
The caller said that rape should be treated as the offence of murder adding that people die in the process of rape while others get psychologically traumatized that they would not be able to live normal lives.
A caller Juliet who called in from outside the state said rapists should die by hanging.
She said: “I propose that whoever rapes someone should be hanged – death by hanging – because if you hear stories of ladies who were raped then you would know that it’s very, very inhuman for another (person) to rape someone else. So the person should just die by hanging”.
Another lady Olivia who reacted to the issue said that there should be chemical castration of those who commit offence of rape.
She said that chemical castration would take away the urge for sex from those who commit rape.
A Tweeter user Divine said the punishment for rape offenders should be either castration or life imprisonment.
Another caller Martins said that there should be accelerated hearing of rape cases in court so that there would be punishment for the offenders.
The caller said: “The judiciary is slow but we can adopt an accelerated hearing or even give the magistrate courts jurisdiction to hear rape matters. Then the states in the country should also adopt the Violence Against Persons Act 2015 which touches so many areas including sexual harassment both on males and females”.
He said the issue of provocative dressing by women should not be an excuse for rape.
He said that rapists are “psychologically mad” adding that the issue of provocative dressing would not be excuse when it comes to litigation.
Another caller said that rape cases should not be settled by families but should be brought to court and should be heard expeditiously.
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) had protested in Edo State over the rape and murder of the first-year student and demanded that the death sentence should be punishment for sex offenders.
