Initiative for Leadership Development and Change (ILDC), an NGO, on Thursday, urged youths to shun rape and Child Sex Abuses (CSA) for a greater and better future.
The National Coordinator of the group, Chief Ugochukwu Nnam, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, describing rape and Child Sex Abuses as a huge violation of human rights.
Nnam said rape and CSA were both injurious to the victim and perpetrator.
He added that “any sexual intercourse without consent is rape and it is injurious to both persons.
“The victims would be physically and mentally hurt with attendant stigma, while predators should be shamed and imprisoned under the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Act.
The coordinator, therefore, advised youths, especially the males to always display honour in dealing with girls or women.
He appealed to young men to always treat girls as future mothers who deserved respect and protection.
According to him, boys and men should not act as predators but protectors of female counterparts.
He explained that “I think it is more honourable to gently approach a lady if you admire her and seek her consent than forcing her or engaging in any act of violence.”
He then commended the states that had domesticated the 2015 VAPP Act, calling on others to do same.
Rape is any unlawful carnal knowledge of man or woman.
While rape is not a new or strange criminal act globally, it assumed a threatening dimension following the imposition of lockdown in many countries, including Nigeria that came with the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020.
