Legal luminary and founder of Afe Babalola University, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN), on Wednesday condemned the rising rape cases, and called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on rape matters.
The elder statesman, in a statement by his Media Coordinator, Tunde Olofintila, in Ado Ekiti, also recommended an amendment to the laws relating to rape, such that rapists would not be imprisoned only, but castrated to serve as deterrent to others.
Babalola said because of anxiety in the land, castrating rapists could not be said to be too much.
He said such punishment had become necessary bearing in mind the physical, psychological and emotional pains rapists inflict on their victims and families.
Babalola recalled the case of 22-year-old Vera Omozuwa, a 100 Level student of University of Benin, and that of 19-year-old Barakat Bello, a student of the Institute of Agriculture, Research and Training, Ibadan who were raped and murdered.
According to him, the society could not afford to fold its arms without drastic actions.
“The prevalence of rape cases is not only alarming, but worrisome. It is worrisome in the sense that it is inconceivable that a male could forcefully rape someone and go further to kill her.
“Today, we have cases where fathers rape their daughters which, to me, is abnormal. We have young men raping young girls and killing them, why?
“Every concerned Nigerian is worried by the problem. You can imagine your daughter going to school and she is gang-raped. This is totally unacceptable and we should rise with one voice to fight the menace.
”In my days, when I was young, rape was unknown. There were no super rich people but there was no poverty. To me, poverty is one reasons why people rape.
“An unemployed person, who is also poor, will find it difficult to have a lady friend or wife and when he has desire and there is no means, he can be pushed to raping a lady,” Babalola said.
He also attributed the frequent cases of rape and murder on use of hard drugs.
He stressed that anyone on drugs could not be presumed normal, which might have been responsible for some fathers raping their own children.
Babalola also condemned some herbalists who would assure people that making use of women’s under wears or cutting parts of a lady’s genitals could make them rich.
He said society would recover from the scourge of rape through constant vigilance, observance of religious tenets of love, provision of employment and avoidance of drugs.
