Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, 2015-herein after referred to as VAPA- is by its Long Title ‘An Act to eliminate violence in private and public life, prohibit all forms of violence against persons and to provide maximum protection and effective remedies for victims and punishment of offenders; and for related matters’. Under this Act, there is a provision in section 1(2) which provides for ‘ punishment for rape’. The said subsection provides that ‘(2) A person convicted of an offence under subsection (1) of this section is liable to imprisonment for life except – (a) where the offender is less than 14 years of age, the offender is liable to a maximum of 14 years imprisonment; (b) in all other cases, to a minimum of 12 years imprisonment without an option of fine; or (c) in the case of rape by a group of persons, the offenders are liable jointly to a minimum of 20 years imprisonment without an option of fine.’. From the above provisions, it is clear that an adult person convicted of an offence of rape is liable to life imprisonment for life while in the case of rape by a group of persons, the offenders are liable jointly to 20 years imprisonment without an option of fine. These provisions are what necessitated this article to constructively criticize the provisions on sentencing. It is submitted that the provision is capable of encouraging gang rape. This is because an offender might prefer to be sentenced to years of imprisonment rather than life imprisonment. Such a person might prefer that rather than for him alone to be sentenced to life imprisonment, it is rather better if they gang-rape the victim, so that they can jointly be sentenced to a minimum of 20 years. In fact, there is a possibility that the Court might not sentence them jointly to even the 20 years because the Court has in the present time, tended towards mitigating the sentence provided in a statute by providing alternative sentence. So, criminality takes a new unthinkable dimension beyond a saint’s thought. Therefore, it might be difficult for a person to sacrifice himself for the sentence of life imprisonment. While a group rape is sentenced to some few years of imprisonment, just one person is sentenced to life imprisonment. How fair is this to the victim?! It is submitted that what the law makers could have probably done was to sentence both the individual and a group of rapists to the same sentence either life imprisonment or term of years. Rape has become a recurrent in our society to the extent that no one is left out of the vulnerability. An adult becomes vulnerable, so as the infant, young and the aged. Unlike in the olden days where it was a thing of morality to even move closer to a female not to talk of touching or holding her. In that time, there was shyness, chastity, and morals-both religious and legally compelled morals. But nowadays, raping a female is now a pride whether for an individual person or a group of persons who are the perpetrators. In fact, we got to hear that some of these kind of acts are what some cultists are initiated into their cult with. It should also be noted and observed by section 1(1) of the VAPA that both female and male are capable of being raped. It is now clear that both female and male individuals can be sentenced to life imprisonment and a group of them jointly to 20 years imprisonment without an option of fine. For the purpose of clarity, the said section 1(1) of VAPA defines what amounts to ‘rape’ as it provides thus ‘1. (1) A person commits the offence of rape if- (a) he or she intentionally penetrates the vagina, anus or mouth of another person with any other part of his or her body or anything else; (b) the other person does not consent to the penetration; or (c) the consent is obtained by force or means of threat or intimidation of any kind or by fear of harm or by means of false and fraudulent representation as to the nature of the act or the use of any substance or additive capable of taking away the will of such person or in the case of a married person by impersonating his or her spouse.’. From the provisions of section 1(1)(a) VAPA, it is submitted that the words ‘he or she’ as used in the provision refers to ‘male or female’. And the nomenclature of ‘person’ referring to a victim entails both male and female as the provision never specifies that it is only a female that can be a victim unlike in our general criminal laws where it is presumed that only a female can be raped. Therefore, it is further submitted that arising from the use of the words ‘he or she’ and ‘his or her name in paragraph c of the subsection 1’, a male is capable of raping a fellow male or female while a female is also capable of raping her fellow female or male. Therefore, it is submitted that both female and male, where found guilty of the offence of rape, and are convicted of the offence, are liable to be sentenced to life imprisonment and where they are groups, either a group of only female or only male or a mixture of both male and female and without considering the numbers of the genders in the group, to such an extent that it does not matter that only a female is among the group of 1 or 2 or more male rapists and it does not matter too that only a male is in the group of 1 or 2 or more female rapists, shall be sentenced to a minimum of 20 years imprisonment without an option of fine. It is then the suggestion of the writer of this paper that this provision is capable of encouraging gang-rape or group-rape as the perpetrator might prefer the sentence of some few years of imprisonment to the sentence of life imprisonment without the hope of getting freedom one day except at the mercy of the Executive-pardon.]]>
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