Nigerian law on sexual offences and suggested reforms

THE NIGERIAN LAW ON SEXUAL OFFENCES AND SUGGESTED REFORMS

Sexual offences, generally, refers to offences committed against the opposite sex.Examples of sexual offences include:Rape,defilement,incest,e.t.c.However, this article is majorly to examine the offence of rape in Nigeria.

Rape,in it’s ordinary and literal meaning, means having forceful sexual intercourse with a non-consenting female with the full knowledge that she is non-consenting.

However, in legal parlance, section 357 of the Nigerian criminal code defines the word “Rape” as having unlawful carnal knowledge with a woman against her will, without her consent, or she believing the person to be her husband.See also sec.282 of the penal code.In essence,the main issue here is that the offender knows that such unlawful knowledge is not backed by the victim’s consent.

Rape is a gender-sensitive kind of offence that has more to do with morality than legality.The offence of rape in Nigeria is one that has very little rate of reportage, and often times, there have been difficulties in securing the conviction of offenders due to the difficulty in proving consent or lack of consent.Many offenders have often times claimed that the victim actually enjoyed the act while it was taking place.The Nigerian courts have devised various means for determining whether/not there was consent.Some of these means include:

1.        Torn dresses and underwears of the victim could, at times, be an indication that the victim did not actually consent to the act.

2.        Victim’s cries and shouts for help could also be a determining factor of the absence of consent.

However,where there is a prior sexual relationship between the prosecutrix(victim) and the offender, or where there were no cries or shouts for help when help could easily have been gotten, the court is most likely to infer that there was consent.Also, where the victim is a person of “known loose moral character”, like a prostitute for instance, it would probably be assumed that she consented.

There are certain misconceptions amidst Nigerians especially, concerning the offence of rape, and they will be examined below:

l  There is the belief that a married woman cannot be raped by her husband.Modern democracies and developed countries have moved away from this rule as there have been cases of spousal rape.

l  That a woman cannot achieve penetration to commit the offence of rape.This is not so as modern democracies have recognized the possibility of using fingers and sex toys to achieve penetration.

l  That a child below the age of 12 cannot have unlawful carnal knowledge with a female, as per Sec.30 of the Nigerian Criminal code.However, modern democracies have opined that biological changes in our body differs, therefore the possibility of a child below 12 committing the offence is high.

l  Finally,despite the offence being a serious offence,I still hold the view that the punishment of life imprisonment attached to the offence is high and should be reduced to a lesser term.