Some parents have called for stringent punishments, including castration, for paedophiles upon conviction.
They made the call in interviews with our correspondent in Lagos on Thursday.
our correspondent reports that paedophiles, people who are sexually attracted to children, are punished through surgical castration, which involves loss of testicles in some countries.
Ukraine’s parliament in 2019 had approved measures to chemically castrate convicted rapists. Indonesia and Czech Republic also administer such punishment to convicted rspists.
Mrs Taiwo Alade, a retired headmistress in Ayobo, Lagos, said child rapists must be severely punished and even castrated as being proposed in some countries around the world.
“People who defile children should be made to feel the agonies they inflict on their victims.
“The issue of paedophiles in Nigeria is gradually becoming warrisome and we must not sleep on it.
“I am of the school of thought of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” said Alade.
In the same vein, Mr Samuel Ayodele, an estate developer in Lagos, proposed that testicles of those engaged in raping minors should also be removed to serve as deterrent.
“I am still amazed why our leaders have not enacted the law.
“If one or two perpetrators of this evil act are castrated upon conviction, they will serve as deterrent to others.
“Whoever nurtures such atrocity in his heart will think twice before losing his manhood forever,” Ayodele said.
Mrs Folashade Adaramola, a Lagos-based business woman, however, submitted that castration might not bring an end to the menace of sexual assault in the society.
“Castration does not solve the problem. If they are castrated, they can still use their fingers to do anything because it’s part and parcel of them.
“Have you not seen some people, don’t they penetrate with their finger whenever they want to have sex?
“If you put them in life imprisonment, what about the prison environment? are the female prisoners safe?
“I honestly cannot decide on the best punishment for them. Only God knows why they are doing that,” said Adaramola.
She urged the government to employ relatives of rape victims that are learned to handle rape cases so that the law against defilement can be adequately enforced.
“For the law to be adequately enforced, the parents of the rape victims, maybe their mothers or fathers that are literate should be employed as law enforcement agents.
“This is because they know how it feels for their wards to be sexually assaulted and when they hear of such cases, they will not allow it to be swept under the rug.
“This type of sensitive case is as good as dead if it is being handled by an officer whose relative has not had such an ugly experience and can easily be bribed.
“This is Nigeria situation, before you hear it, the case is closed but if you put persons whose relatives have experienced it, those that have been in that shoe, such persons will be ready to die on the case because they know how it feels.
“For the law to be fully in action, people whose wards have been sexually assaulted in one way or the other must be part of the law enforcement agents,” she said.
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