Kano lawmakers’ move to castrate rapists thrills women lawyers

The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) in Kano State has lauded the state House of Assembly’s move to prescribe castration as punishment for rapists in the state.

The assembly, on Wednesday, commenced the process to amend the Penal Code (No.12), Law of 2014, to change the punishment for rapists from 14 years imprisonment to castration.

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This followed a motion presented, on Wednesday, by Nuraddeen Alhassan, representing Rano constituency, who stressed that the review was necessary to reflect a harsher punishment for rapists in the state.

Alhassan said, “I believe this is the only measure to be taken to end the rampant cases of rape in our society, as it is so worrisome.

“I also want to appeal to the house to look into the security issues, so as to strengthen their efforts in tackling the rape cases in the state,” he said.

He also submitted that if parents desist from sending their children for hawking, that would also contribute to checking the rape menace in the communities.

Many rapists, he said, used hawking opportunity to lure children, especially at construction sites or abandoned buildings.

Alhassan also asked the house to find out how rape cases were being handled by the courts in the state.

During the plenary presided over by Speaker Abdulazeez Gafasa, the lawmakers, after deliberation on the issue, unanimously adopted the motion and ordered for the review of the extant law.

Reacting to the development, Barrister Huwaila Muhammad Ibrahim, chairperson of FIDA in the state, said the association believed that such punishment would serve as deterrent and hence minimise the offence.

She said they have always held the position that the 14 years imprisonment provided as punishment for rape by the extant law in the state was not enough because for anyone to be convicted, it means the case had been proven beyond all reasonable doubt.

“The victim is raped for the rest of her life; as such even the minimum punishment should be more than 14 years imprisonment,” she said.

Daily Trust reports that the state police command in June said it had charged at least 42 suspected rapists to court in the first half of the year.

“A 32-year-old suspected serial rapist, who allegedly raped at least 40 women in the state, was also part of those that have since been charged to court,” the police stated.