A new public opinion poll conducted by NOIPolls has revealed surging rape incidence in Nigeria as most citizens – as many as 85 percent – believe that the issue is becoming a menace.
According to the NOIPoll report released in Abuja on Thursday, about 3 in 10 Nigerians say they know someone who has been raped in the past.
Over 72 percent of the rape victims are minors and young adults aged between 1 – 15 years while others fall between 16 -25 years old respectively.
“This statistics implies that one in every three girls would have experienced at least one form of sexual assault by the time they reach 25 years,” notes NOIpolls which used a random nationwide selected sample of 1,000 phone-owning Nigerians – 18 years and above, interviewed across the six geopolitical zones in the country using a well-structured questionnaire.
“According to the respondents, offenders were mostly strangers (38 percent), while neighbours (24 percent), acquaintance of the victims (18 percent) and relatives (16 percent) accounted for the other categories of offenders. Further probing revealed that most of the rape incidence happened either at the victim’s residence (36 percent) or at the offender’s residence (24 percent),” the Polls notes.
“Of categories of offenders identified, 38 percent were mostly strangers, neighbors accounted for 24 percent), acquaintance of the victims accounted for 18 percent while and relatives were 16 percent.”
Also, most of the rape incidence happened either at the victim’s residence or at the offender’s residence”.
The report also shows that rape cases are still under-reported in Nigeria for reasons such as fear of stigmatization and lack of persecution of offenders by the law amongst other reasons adding that these factors has encouraged offenders to perpetrate more of such crimes as well as hindered the successes recorded in the fight against rape despite efforts by several government agencies and civil society organizations to mitigate the crime.
“There are perceptions that rape cases have been under-reported especially to the Police, as offenders are often not prosecuted as data shows that there have been a 25 percent decline in the proportion of Nigerians who reported rape incidence to the Police since 2014,” according to the polls.
The Polls notes alarmingly that trends on the prevalence of rape showed that only a marginal 1 percent decline has been recorded in the fight against the prevalence of this atrocious crime between 2014 and 2019. Hence, this menace is still a major challenge in Nigeria.
Alarmingly, the poll finds that Nigerians considered consent from a minor (less than 18 year) as well as consent from an intoxicated individual as valid consent for sexual activity.
The report notes curiously, that Nigerians blame the incidence of rape mainly on indecent dressing (47 percent), excess intake of alcohol by the offenders (36 percent) and victims (34 percent) and promiscuity (34 percent).
In terms of justice, Nigerians mostly advocated life imprisonment (37 percent), death penalty (22 percent) and prosecution (20 percent) for offenders of rape in the country. In addition, a larger proportion (41 percent) of Nigerians from the poll recommended that offenders of rape
should be punished considering that some of the offenders elude the wrath of the law.
Also, 19 percent suggest that there should be more awareness campaign on the dangers of rape to help reduce the increasing trend of rape in the society.
The polls recommends that there is need for a nationwide advocacy by civil society organizations and government agencies as way of mitigating further occurrence of the menace and encourage victims to report rape incidences by ensuring prosecution of offenders and get
justice for victims.
“It is therefore important that concerned stakeholders’ and the government, particularly the National Orientation Agency, work together to find the most effective way of implementing and
disseminating greater awareness campaigns on the dangers as well as the consequences of rape and to reinforce the government’s commitment to end the scourge.
Cynthia Egboboh, Abuja.
