Lawyer Recommends Quarantine As Punishment For Convicted Rapists

A lawyer, Bar. Isaiah Odje, on Saturday recommended quarantine for life as a form of punishment for persons convicted of rape.

Odje told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that such convicts should be offered an option of fine.

Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration perpetrated against a person without that person’s consent.

The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or against a person who is incapable of giving valid consent, such as one who is unconscious, incapacitated, has an intellectual disability or is below the legal age of consent

According to Odje, rape or defilement is a violation of the human body that can leave the victim traumatised and scarred for life.

“Child defilement should not be a bailable offence. If the government or court releases offenders on bail, they will go back to repeat the transgression.

“So quarantine should be an alternative punishment for those who defile a minor.

“Rapists should be quarantined to keep them away from the public.

“Quarantine centres should be named “Rapists Home”.

“Visitation of relatives and friends should not be allowed, but relatives could be allowed to call offenders on the centre’s line only,’’ Odje said.

NAN reports that Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011, prescribes life imprisonment for persons convicted of defilement.

However, the prescribed penalty is hardly meted out to persons found guilty of such misconduct, according official sources around the country’s courts.

He also said the seeming insensitivity of the society to the issue of child defilement was responsible for the increasing incidence of the offense.

“People that defile minors are evil and can completely destroy the lives of such minors.

“Our justice system should prevent offenders from repeating an offence. These are people who have done great harm to others.

“Let the government make society snub them, we cannot afford to be lenient with rapists,” he said.

He advised parents to keep a close eye on their children, saying such vigilance would go a long way toward preventing the child defilement.

“Parent should observe their children as care givers.

“They should also mind the kind of friends their female children keep.’’

NAN reports that since the passage of the Anti-Rape Bill of April 2013 in India, persons convicted of rape are liable to life imprisonment, and even the death sentence.

The sentence for rape In China, the punishment for rape is death or castration, while in Afghanistan convicted rapists are shot in the head within four days of delivering judgement or hanged to death depending on the judgment handed out by the court.

The punishment for rape in Saudi Arabia is public beheading after the rapist is sedated.