Rapists may face the death penalty in Nigeria under...

Rapists may face the death penalty in Nigeria under a new law to enhance children's rights, according to Women Affairs and Youth Development Minister Aisha Isma'il."We had wanted to recommend the death sentence for offenders in our children's bill, but people say it was too stringent. So the penal code punishment that carries the maximum punishment for offenders will be used instead," the minister said in Abuja.Amidst growing concern about the menace of child rape, Isma'il said even though some people had attributed such acts to frustration and poverty, "such animalistic behaviour should not be allowed to continue."She said such behaviour had persisted because of the insensitivity of past governments to children's welfare and the clerics who have perverted the cause of morality."If women had been part of the decision-making process, I doubt if our children would become commodities in the hands of traffickers, I doubt if men would have the audacity to rape three-year olds," she said.Isma'il said under the new law, a juvenile system of courts would be restored to halt the current process of lumping minors with adults in detention centres and in the prisons and meting out punishments to them like adults.The children bill was drafted in 1993, and is now awaiting ratification by the legislature.