Rapists Should be Jailed without Option of Fine, Says House Member

Calls for psychiatric evaluation

Worried by the high rate of rape cases especially in Kano State, a member representing Gwale Federal Constituency, Kano, in the House of Representatives, Hon. Ibrahim Garuba , said rapists should be tried and jailed without the any option of fine.

He lamented the fact that rapists were allowed to go on bail, coupled with the fear of stigmatisation by the victims have contributed immensely to the increase in rape cases in the country.

Garuba made this known while speaking with journalists in Abuja. He also stated that psychiatric test be carried out on rapists especially those that specialise in raping minors.

According to him, “there should be laws and these laws should be applied immediately we have such cases. Now, the issue is that if a person is found to have raped a small girl or anyone that person should not be allowed to go on bail. The person should be remanded in prison and tried. But, I understand that the Kano State House of Assembly is trying to come up with a law concerning the rape cases.”

Continuing, Garuba added that, “I’m of the opinion that such a case should not go unpunished, such people should go to jail, they should be jailed without giving any option of fine, and after that there should be psychiatric test carried out on them because for someone to go and defile a two-year- old girl or a threeyear-old girl that person must be insane. I only think that it is only an insane person who will go and rape an infant.”

Garuba said that recently on the floor of the House there was a motion concerning harassment of females in the tertiary institutions but it was stepped down because the House do not want a law that would protect only those in tertiary institutions.

“It has to cover all Nigerians, so there should be a general law for rapists not for only those who carry out sexual harassment in the tertiary institutions, so I think the sponsor of the bill is reconsidering it,” he said.