WRAPA DEMANDS STIFFER PUNISHMENT FOR RAPISTS
By Mohammed S. Shehu

December 18, 2003 – (Daily Trust - Abuja) The increasing rate of sexual abuses against women has been attributed to lack of proper legal provision to punish offenders to serve as deterrent to the public.

Justice Binta Murtala Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja stated this yesterday in Abuja while presenting a paper titled "Rape, Defilement and Indecent Assault as Contained in the Criminal and Appeal Code," at a one day workshop on "Public Education Session on Rape" organised by Women's Right Advancement and Protection Alternatives (WRAPA) in the FCT.

According to her, the present legal arrangement in which a victim of rape has to explain the level of penetration does not augur well for justice due to the socio-cultural environment.

Therefore, she opted for the use of medical diagnosis and other favourable means of detecting a rape case, "the problem in Nigeria is that a rape victim is expected to describe the level of penetration before she can prove the level of sexual maltreatment," she said.

In another presentation the topic. "The Practical Perspective of Rape," Prof. Sola Oluwu of the Obafemi Awolowo University called on the general public to adopt new ways of resisting a rape attempt by arousing sympathy of the rapist or disclose a dangerous health status.

"You can avoid being raped by telling the rapist that you are infected with any of the sexually transmitted diseases or HIV/AIDS just to scare him away," he opined.

In her vote of thanks, the FCT WRAPA coordinator, Mrs. Rabi Abdullahi called on women to assist in reducing the frequent attack on womenfolk by re-modeling their pattern of dressing.

She also called on the participants to always imbibe the culture of wearing decent clothes in order to look decent, modest and morally upright. She also reiterated the determination of her organization to reach out to the younger ones in secondary schools who she described as the target of the attack.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200312180190.html