An Ilorin based legal practitioner, Mr Adeola Omotunde, has advocated the amendment of the law on rape and defilement of minors in the face of rampant cases of rape in the society.
Omotunde made the appeal on Saturday in Ilorin while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
According to him, now that the cases of rape are increasing, the law guarding it has to be amended to make it more stringent or to serve as a deterrent to discourage the perpetrators.
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He said that the Nigerian law was sufficient to fight the menace of rape, but the law would need to be strengthened and the punishment increased to curb the act in the society.
“The law guarding the rape cases were enacted many years ago by the colonial inheritance but recently the cases are rampant; the law has to be amended
“The level of awareness is not enough because we have a large number of people in Nigeria who are illiterate.
“Somebody who is illiterate cannot understand anything we are saying in the newspaper and television; some of them don’t even have radios at home.
“The awareness campaign should be taken to the Mosques and Churches in their communities and religious leaders should preach that rape is an offence against humanity and God,’’ the lawyer said.
He identified some of the factors responsible for the rising cases as culture, religion and indecent dressing among ladies.
Omotunde said that other factors are the intake of hard drugs, alcohol and Indian hemp.
He said that if people are under the influence of drugs, they lacked the capacity to control themselves and eventually tend to rape ladies/minors or even their own children.
He added that because victims seldom speak out due to fear of social stigma, this encourages the perpetrators to go on committing similar offences.