It has become law in the Nigeria’s Kaduna state, Rapists will henceforth be castrated.
The State House of Assembly has approved castration as punishment for those convicted of rape, raising crirical question on what happens if the convict is a female?
This, according to checks by Platforms Africa, is a detour from the stand earlier taken by the country’s National Assembly, which threw away such a bill based on contradiction on commensurate punishment for a woman convicted of rape.
The stand taken by Kaduna legislators follows the passage of a bill to amend the Kaduna state penal court law, 2017, by the lawmakers.
The assembly, which announced the development via its Twitter handle on Thursday, said the bill was passed into law on Wednesday. “The Bill Recommend total Castration for Rapist in the State,” the Assembly tweeted.
Currently, the state penal law provides for 21 years of imprisonment for rape of an adult and life imprisonment in the case of a child.
It is not immediately clear if there are provisions against female rapists in the new bill.
It was passed about two months after Nasir el-Rufai, the governor, advocated a stiff punishment, lamenting that convicts often rape more persons after serving their jail term.
“In addition to life imprisonment or 21 years’ imprisonment, anyone convicted of rape will have his organ surgically removed so that even after he finishes his term, he will not be able to rape anyone again,” the governor had said.
“So long as the tool exists, there is the likelihood that he may go back to do it again. Most of the perpetrators are young people, so even after 21 years, they can come back and continue.”
He had also said the state would expunge the provision for bail conditions for rape convicts.
The move by the Kaduna assembly is coming at a time Nigeria is plagued with incessant rape cases.
In June, Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police (IGP), said Nigeria recorded 717 rape cases within five months in 2020.
During one of their sittings a few months ago, the house of representatives rejected castration as punishment for rape after questions were raised on the fate of females convicted of the offence.
