Justice Margareth Akpomiemie of the Bayelsa State High Court, Yenagoa, a couple of days ago, sentenced one Super Ojo (aka Bestman), identified as a notorious cult leader in the state, to a total of 28 years in prison for his involvement in the gang-rape of a lady (name shielded). Super, according to reports, was arrested in 2011 for raping the victim in company of nine other members of his gang at Akaba in Yenagoa Local Government Area of the state; and was arraigned in court in May 2014 on a four-count charge of conspiracy, rape, murder and membership of an unlawful group. The convict was said to have gone to the lady’s house with four other people; dragged her out and forcibly took her to a bush where five other culprits were waiting; and they all gangraped her.
Justice Akpomiemie, the presiding judge, in her ruling, found Super guilty on three out of the four-count charge. Consequently, he was sentenced to five years imprisonment on count one (conspiracy); while count two (actual crime of rape) attracted 21 years’ jail term. The felon bagged two years on count four (membership of a secret cult), bringing the total jail term to 28 years. But the judge struck out the charge on murder for want of evidence to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt.
It is public knowledge that cases of sex offences, especially rape, have been on the increase nationwide in recent years. Not quite long ago, the Lagos State Government said at least 12, 120 rape and other cases related to sexual violence were reported in the state in the last four years; and that 140 sex offenders were convicted. The Ondo State Police Command listed 45 rape cases in 2013; Edo State, 96 cases between January 2012 and August 2014, with nine convictions; while in Jigawa State, an average of 10 rape cases were reported monthly in 2014, according to reports credited to the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General, Yakubu Ruba. Unfortunately, most of the cases are neither reported to the police nor prosecuted to a logical conclusion because of stigmatisation and shame.
Several socio-psychological, traditional and spiritual factors, like poor and corrupt family upbringing, negative peer influence, indecent exposure to pornography physically or on the internet, drug addiction and alcoholism, as well as get-richquick rituals, have been fingered as driving rape. What is obvious, nonetheless, is that most sex crimes are evidence of the lack of self-restraint, fuelled by the general loss of moral values. Indeed, they amplify the grave extent of moral degeneration in virtually all facets of our national life.
This will help explain why diligent investigation, prosecution and harsh punishment for sex offenders, like the type just meted out to Super by Justice Akpomiemie, are inevitable if the nation is truly committed to arresting the upsurge in rape and other sex-related offences. For a crime that rubbishes the dignity and pride of victims; and exposes them to eternal trauma and the dangers of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), including HIV/ AIDS, like rape, nothing else may redress the grave physical and psychological damages victims suffer like making culprits pay heavily for their crimes.
Unfortunately, the kind of punishment meted out to Super is not common in the country. We recall a case in Edo State in the not too distant past, for example, where one Michael Aimufua, a middle-aged man, waylaid a housewife on school-run, dragged her into the bush and raped her. In his hurry to escape, Aimufua was knocked down accidentally by a vehicle driven by the unsuspecting husband of the raped woman. In the process of taking the run-away rapist to the hospital, the assaulted woman emerged and the crime was exposed. In the end, the rapist was arraigned in court and jailed for just two years last year. What great lesson would a two-year jail term teach an offender like Aimufua?
Very stiff penalties are really required to put up a good fight against the rape scourge; in addition to tackling the root causes of the depravity through moral regeneration. We also recommend to other states and jurisdictions the innovative ‘Sex Offenders Register’ recently introduced by the Lagos State Government, through which the names of convicted sex offenders would be generously made available for public scrutiny and consumption, to the shame of such sex offenders.
