Two herdsmen have been remanded in prison for abducting and raping a woman carrying eight months’ pregnancy. The woman was reportedly abducted from her house in the Abaji Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, taken to the bush, and gang-raped by the two brutes. The suspects, Nuru Tukur and Yusufa Haruna, were arraigned in court recently. They pleaded guilty to the offence and were remanded in a correctional centre pending sentencing on March 22 by an area court in Gwagwalada.

How callous and mindless can these herders get, gang-raping an eight-month pregnant woman! This is an act of unspeakable cruelty that is utterly criminal and morally reprehensible. This incident speaks volumes about the level of decadence that has crept into the society, robbing some people of their morality, humanity and even sanity. It is disturbing that outlaws are having a field day, perpetrating all manners of crime with impunity. And when you think you have seen the height of criminality and lawlessness, you are confronted with outlawry of the beastly and bestial variant that questions the sanity of the perpetrators!

Not a few Nigerians see the hideous incident as a continuing reflection of what has become the resort to impunity by some herders because of the inability of the government to dissuade atrocities through the apprehension of culprits and meting out of appropriate punishment. It is on record that there have been cases of atrocities perpetrated by herdsmen with only very few of them being apprehended. The few that were caught hardly got punished, thereby giving incentives to their ilk to continue perpetrating criminal and dastardly acts. And no one except the malefactors benefits anything from the sordid state of affairs: the society continues to be disturbed by the pernicious activities of the criminals, while the government appears unable or unwilling to rein them in.

In the instant case, the herders must have really thought that they were above the law: they deliberately abducted the victim from her house and took her to a bush where they subjected her to the unspeakable and repugnant act. Sadly, the herders had a reason to think they could benefit from the prevailing atmosphere of impunity because history was, indeed, on their side. If they had reckoned with the likelihood of being apprehended and severely punished for engaging in such a barbarous act, they would have thought twice before committing the atrocity. The truth is that crimes are not routinely punished in this country as they should be, making many to think and believe that they could engage in acts of criminality and go scot-free.

It is, thus, imperative that the government reevaluates its approach to crime and punishment to underline the importance of ensuring that crime does not pay and is punished appropriately every time. The only way to maintain peace and order in the society is to ensure that the government works and adheres strictly to the laws and regulations governing it and does not give room to criminals to get away with their disruptive acts. We expect the government to act in this regard in the present case and ensure that these criminal herders are visited with the full weight of the law for what they have done. We commend the police for apprehending the culprits and arraigning them in court, and we urge that the publicity that attended the arraignment of the suspects should be extended to the court’s verdict on the matter so that the public will be aware that justice has been served.

We believe that the job of the prosecution and the court has been made a lot easier since the felons have pleaded guilty to the offence, but their confession to he heinous crime should by no means lessen their punishment. These malicious herders should be handed the maximum sentence under the law to serve as a deterrent to would-be abductors, rapists and other criminals.

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