STIFFER PENALTY AWAITS RAPISTS, SAYS SARAKI!

Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Monday said the Senate would legislate on stiffer penalties for those found guilty of rape and other gender-based violence in the country.

Saraki, who gave the undertaking at a sensitisation workshop on the implementation of the guidelines on gender-based violence organised by Women Arise, a non-governmental organisation, also admitted that there were obnoxious sections against the social media in the Frivolous Petition Bill, which is generating controversies in the country.

While insisting that there was nothing like ‘social media bill’ before the Senate, the Senate President nonetheless, said there were “obnoxious” sections against the media in the Frivolous Petitions Bill which has been termed as social media bill.

He assured that the no obnoxious portions of the bill would see the light of the day when the Senate finally concludes work on the controversial bill.

“Unfortunately, in the bill on frivolous petitions, there are some sections which I will call obnoxious sections there and I am sure, as you all know, those obnoxious sections would not see the light of the day by the time the bill is finished, because they have no relevance to the bill at hand which is all about frivolous petitions.”

“It is not our intention to gag the social media at all. We want to run an open Senate so that you all can be part of it and by being part of it, we can get a better country.”

 “I want to reassure you that there is no bill in the Senate that is called Anti Media Bill. I want to assure you that what we have before us is a bill on frivolous petitions, it has to do with petitions generally. Generally, when we debate bills at the second reading, we only debate the principles. We do not debate the details of the bill,” he said.

Senator Saraki, who took time at the occasion to closely watch a 30-minute documentary of the torture and inhuman treatment of three women alleged to have stolen pepper in Ejigbo, Lagos State, condemned the act in its entirely just as he assured that the Senate will enact laws that would recommend serious punishments for perpetrators of such treatment.

He decried the slow trial of culprits of rape and violence in Nigeria, adding that the Senate was coming out with stiff laws against offenders.

“Gender based violence is one of the most persistent human rights crimes in the world and one of the least prosecuted offences. These human rights violations pose serious consequence for us all and our future generation that have to be addressed,” he stressed.

SOURCE: THIS DAY

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