Rape:A Trending Menance, By Dieko Gilbert

Yet another gang rape video has gone viral,this time not in Abia ,but Lagos. Again the boys laughed and the girl weeps. The boys click away on digital cameras, as if it they are on the set of playboy magazine shoot .

In 2011,the Abia rape video was passed round the cyberspace.
People downloaded and watched,blogs and websites were agog with comments more appalling than the viewing of the video itself .

Advocacy groups raised dusts, still the rapists have not been brought to book.

That was 2011,last December 2012, an Indian student was gang raped and beaten by five men and left to die in the street.

She later died in the hospital and in the glare of the world her case made international headlines.

The India case caused demonstrations to spring up all around the county,demonstrators literally called for the heads of the perpetrators of the act.

The five men have been arrested among them a teenager not fit for trial in an adult court and one has died in police custody (suicide or killed)not yet proven.

Back to the latest one ,that is the Lagos rape case.The video has gone viral and the main actor’s face munched ,bloggers asking questions such as “do you know this face” and “help catch this man” good but not good enough.

The big question is are there laws for rape and another BIG question is are rape cases ever reported.

A certain story was told of a girl who was raped and when she got to the police station to report the case,she said she was robbed and when asked what she was robbed of, she reluctantly said she was raped,the policemen made fun of her and called her loose and wayward .
This is a joke, but is it far from the truth?Is it not true that a girl is made fun of and ridiculed when she reports a rape case?

Rape cases are notoriously under-reported,as a result of social stigma.
Rape victims washed up after been raped and just enter mute mode,exposing themselves to risks of been infected with a poupouri of sexually transmitted diseases ;even unwanted pregnancy .And most unnerving of all the accused walks freely and probably be looking for the next victim to attack.

Tobi Asekun a counsellor with project Alert Nigeria an NGO, that fights for women’s rights says rape cases are seldom reported because of the cloud of stigma that canopy over them .Even parents of victims always exude cowardice by not reporting the incident to the police. Running away from stigmatization.

Issues of rape mirrors’ a sad realisation of how societies have decayed .

Hajiya Zainab Maina, is Nigeria’s minister of women affairs and social development,expressed her concern about sexual violence against women is rising in the country.

She said drastic steps must be taken to combat it and her ministry is pushing for the passage the death penalty bill.

The truth is,there is a rape culture in Nigeria.Just as it is in Nigeria,so it is in South Africa.

Statically, South Africa top the list of country with a pole vaulted cases of rape in Africa. It has one of the highest rates, with 277,000 reported cases.

Somehow not shocking though for a country which holds the belief that raping a virgin, is an automatic elixir for curing the HIV /AID scourge that is ranging the country.

Survey by Medical Research Council has shown that one in four men have admitted to raping someone.

In the United States – More than 89,241 rape cases were reported.

Criminals face life behind bars, and in some States, castration is an option.

New Delhi has the highest number of sex crimes among India’s major cities,with a rape reported on an average every 18 hours, according to Police figures.

In Nigeria rape is never reported and no one has ever served time for it and may never.

This Story was written by Dieko Gilbert, a Lagos based Freelance Journalist.