October 22, 2018 By: Cedric Clancy
‘’The Increase in the rate of defilement cases in Nigeria today calls for a rapid response to curtail same and to save the future of our nation which lies in the hands of the younger generation. Our numerous legislations must be set in motion across the country in order to protect our children and more so bring defilement perpetrators to book, in order to deter other people from engaging in such high level wickedness’’.
The Blacks law dictionary 10th edition defines ‘’defilement’’ as an act of defiling, condition of being defiled. The word defile is also described to mean dirty, to physically soil, to morally corrupt someone, to deprive a person of chastity, to desecrate, to make less pure and good especially by showing disrespect, to dishonor, etc.
Defilement in the form of sexual abuse is now prevalent even though most of the cases are underreported and not brought to public knowledge. And for the purpose of this article, defilement would be used to describe sexual abuse.
Defilement involves an unlawful sexual intercourse with a person below the age of eighteen (18) years of age with or without their consent. It is a form of abuse which Includes inappropriate, coerced or forced sexual activity, touching, exploitation, misconduct or sexual assault involving a child.
It is important to note that the girl child is more susceptible to defilement than the male child even though none of them deserves it. The perpetrators of this crime range from the child’s blood relatives, maids, drivers, neighbors, parents, teachers, and other people they come in contact with in the society at large.
These perpetrators use the trick of threat to silence their victims thereby making it impossible for these victims to disclose their ordeals to their parents or guardians, teachers and friends or the appropriate authority and as a result, their ordeals become incessant. This, I must say, affects the statistics for this crime with many cases staying off the records.
It is sad to state, that everyday these defilement cases are reported in our dailies with the victims and the suspect recounting these horrendous experiences which leaves sad memories in the minds of both the readers, victims and their families. These cases, most times, are charged to court while some others are settled at the police station which ought not to be.
I know that there have been some concerted efforts both at the international, regional and domestic levels to protect and preserve the rights of children because they are particularly susceptible to being exploited, deceived, cajoled and mesmerized into harmful activities since they lack the capacity to appreciate the consequences and/or may not have a choice when faced with these devilish situations.
It is instructive to state, that although defilement is an offence on its own, it is not a miniature of the offence of rape. Also the evidence to establish the offence of defilement is the same as in rape except that in the case of defilement, it is immaterial whether the act was done with or without the consent of the victim. It is equally important to state, that the fact that sexual intercourse with the child is consensual is immaterial in the case of defilement.
Regard must be had to the provisions of section 218 of the Criminal Code which gives a time limit of two months within which the prosecution or trial of the case of defilement must begin. This time limitation I must say needs to be reviewed considering the vulnerability and state of the Nigerian child who might not speak of the experience until a much later date. Also there are other unforeseen circumstances that certainly make this time limit very inappropriate.
In our legal jurisprudence, our courts treat the issue of limitation of time with such gravity which makes the court lack the competence to try an accused charged for defilement if the prosecution is commenced after two months of committing the offence.
Considering the peculiarity of our courts and the nonchalant attitudes together with haphazard preparations of some prosecutors, most of these cases drag for too long and at the end of the day, justice is not served. This state of affairs negatively affects the victim and as such, the psychological effect of the ugly ordeals/experience leaves a lasting negative memory on the victim.
As a society, everyone must play a role in ensuring that we protect the younger generation so that we will not have psychologically imbalanced adults whose emotions are shattered and who think that they deserved what they experienced while the perpetrators of these crimes are left unnoticed and unpunished. Let’s save our children and the future of our nation if they are truly the leaders of tomorrow. As concerned citizens, we must be willing to expose every perpetrator of defilement and we must lend our voices to the victims so that this wickedness can be exposed within and around us.
Child Marriage also encourages defilement, even though a lot of legislations have been put together which kick against it. I urge the government to do more and totally eradicate it as its still prevalent in some parts of our country.
Our Children must be taught to always expose any form of threat or entreaties which this crime perpetrators use and they must speak out at all times of any compromising situation which they are not comfortable with or used to. This is a clarion call to us all.
SAVE OUR CHILDREN TODAY, SPEAK UP FOR THEM AND BE VIGILANT IN YOUR ENVIRONMENT.
REFERENCES:
… Blacks law dictionary
…Criminal law and sexual offences in Nigeria with Criminal Code Act by E. E. ALOBO
…IKO V STATE (2001) 14 NWLR PT 732 at 221
… EKEOGU V ALIRI (1991) 3NWLR PT 179 at 258
…. GOD BLESS EZENWATA NIGERIA LTD V SUNDAY V ODIOKU & ORS 2015 LPELR-24438(CA)
BY AGUGUA MERCY… A legal practitioner, Child Rights Advocate, Public Speaker and a Writer.
1 comment:
Thank you
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