Anambra Commissioner, Lady Ndidi Mezue Advocates Life Imprisonment for Sex with Minors
Following the growing cases of sexual abuse of minors across the country, the Commissioner for Women and Children Affairs in Anambra State, Lady Ndidi Mezue has called for a life sentence for people found guilty of raping underage girls in Nigeria.
Speaking at the recent edition of “Meet the Media” in Awka, the state capital, Lady Mezue frowned at the increasing destruction of the moral fabric of the society which has led to the rise in sexual assault on children by morally bankrupt adults.
Pointing out that Anambra State has enough legislation to discourage rapists and other categories of sex offenders, Lady Mezue recalled, “ We have Child Rights Law of 2014. Then again we have the VAP Law of 2017. VAP Law is Violent Against Persons. When a man of about 60 years stoops so low to defile a minor of 6 years, I think we should apply the VAP Law of Life Imprisonment,”
According to her, although there is an aspect of the law that prescribes 14 years imprisonment for offenders but a life imprisonment would send a stronger signal to other people who might want to sexually molest minors.
“I think we should go with life imprisonment because you cannot tell me that there is any urge to sleep with a girl of 4 or 5 years when you have thousands of full grown women out there,” she further reasoned.
She expressed disappointment that law enforcement has been very ineffective against rapists and other sex offenders. Lady Mezue said “one thing here is to make laws another is to implement them. I think the problem we are having in Nigeria against rape is implementation and enforcement of existing laws.”
The honorable commissioner also expressed disappointment with the attitude of some parents who discourage their wards from reporting to the authorities when they are sexually exploited by rapists and pedophiles.
“There’s a case from Onitsha; a reverend sister reported the case to my ministry,” she recalled.
And I invited the parents of the girl child. The girl told her sister in confidence that their neighbor, a young man started raping her from when she was in primary 5. But when the case got to me, the girl was in JS2. So, you could see the trauma the girl was passing through. But because she didn’t have confidence in her parents, she was living with it until she was able to confide in her principal who brought her to my office. I invited the parents. The father threatened to strangle her in my presence. He asked; ‘why did you report this case? Who asked you to report? But I contacted the CSO to the governor and he helped us to arrest the suspect.”
ABS
