International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Kwara State office, has started canvassing the castration of rapists across Nigeria. It also solicited establishment of more family courts in the country to discourage injustice that might arise.

According to the chairperson of FIDA in Kwara, Gloria Okodua, lack of family courts discourages complaints of child abuse, rape, and other domestic rights violations. Hosting journalists in her Lajorin office in Ilorin, at the weekend, Okodua lamented the increase in rape cases, with accompanying soft punishment, especially when capital punishment has become unpopular. She said: “We are often faced with child abuse complaints, including rape. Though the penal code can induce reduction in penalty, the child right law goes further by seeking life jail, for instance, for a rapist, yet the offence is on the rise here in Kwara. That is why we are advocating outright castration. It may not be enough. Though, it will send due signal, death would have been the right punishment. Let a rapist be killed. “The courts are trying. We have laws, but we lack its total implementation. We want total implementation of those laws, like the child rights law, which we, in Kwara, were the first to domesticate.” Lamenting the absence of family courts, Okodua sought the establishment of more of such courts nationwide. She said: “Imagine, we have just one family court in Kwara. This discourages complaints from across the state. It would be hard and inconvenient for somebody at Lafiagi, Moro, Offa and other remote areas to come and press for justice in Ilorin. “Let us have more family courts spread across the state like in Lagos.” Meanwhile, the lawyer disclosed that FIDA in the state had prosecuted about 30 cases and secured 10 convictions, noting: “The child right law is really helping us.”