C’River Speaker advocates death penalty for rapists, not hate speech

Eteng Williams, Speaker of Cross River State House of Assembly

The Speaker of Cross River State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Eteng Williams has advocated death sentence for rapists, not hate speech.

He made the call in Calabar at Stakeholders Forum to mark 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign.

Williams said death sentence for rapists and not purveyors of hate speech should be the right thing to do.

“Rape is worse than hate speech. That is where we should advocate for the death sentence, not hate speech. We are taking the issue of gender-based violence seriously. We need to make provision in the budget to take care of victims because their self-esteem is gone.

“Let us do something about the abusers, like banning them from holding public office. We say ‘No to Rape,’” he said.

The Head of Field Office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Calabar, Mr Chris Mubanga, said “women and men, boys and girls have the right to engage in activities without being harassed.

“Everybody should be treated equally as far as they are human beings. People need to be punished for raping women. UNHCR wants communities to work to end violence against women.”

Mubanga who was represented by UNHCR Protection Associate in Calabar, Richard Effiong, said places of work and play should be free of gender-based violence.

Head of Programmes, Girl Power Initiative, Calabar Centre, Ndodeye Bassey-Obongha, in her remarks, said “victims of rape don’t speak out because of stigma. But shame is not on you but on the aggressor. Sexual violence is a serious criminal offence. There is no justification for rape. Rape hurts us all. But the good news is that it can be prevented.”

She reeled out statistics on rape and said in Cross River, 68.8 percent of husbands rape their wives and advocated self-defence training for girls to ward off rapists.

She said child marriage should not be allowed in the state and listed ignorance, poverty, lack of adequate laws/implementation of laws as some the of contributory factors to rape.