National Conference Wants Death Penalty For Rapist

Delegates at the ongoing National Conference on Thursday unanimously agreed to death penalty for anybody convicted of rape charge.

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The delegates sitting at Plenary, however, gave the option of life imprisonment with hard labour to rape convicts in order to serve as deterrent to people with rape tendencies.

The decision was taken following the recommendations by the Bola Ogunrinade- led Committee on Civil Society, Labour, Youths and Sports.

A mild drama, however, occurred during the deliberations as Bolaji Akinyemi, who is the Vice Chairman of the Conference, asked Asabe Baba Nahaya, a delegate representing National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), to go out from the plenary. The action was propelled by her refusal to use her tag in the plenary of the Conference during consideration of Committee report.

But as security personnel, a policeman and an official of the Department of State Security (DSS) approached the delegate to walk her out, former PDP women leader and former Minister of Women Affairs, Iyom Josephine Anenih, quickly intervened to bring the situation under control.

Meanwhile, the Conference delegates turned down the committee’s recommendation to allocate 30 per cent of decision making in the country to youths, as well as the recommendation asking government to phase-out Higher National Diploma (HND) programme.