Nothing signposts a debased and dysfunctional society with a growing population in conflict with sanity more than the spate of acts of criminality in this country. While nothing justifies crimes, a nation-state reputed for multidimensional poverty among its people would naturally be expected to have its own fair share of criminals thrown up by the imperatives of economic survival. However, if it is conceded that some undisciplined and less than resilient citizens with low moral fibre could buckle under economic pressure and resort to desperate measures and precipitate actions in order to survive, how does anyone explain a grave anti-social conduct like sexual violence? Is that, too, driven by hunger and want? It is within this context that the burgeoning descent into lawlessness in the country deserves to be thoroughly interrogated. For instance, how does anyone explain the recent reports of the apprehension of two middle-aged men by the Ondo State Police Command for raping and killing two elderly women in Ondo State?

The two suspects who were employed as farm labourers allegedly committed the offences separately in Akure, the state capital, as well as in Costain, Ore axis in Odigbo Local Government Area of the state. Farm hands who evidently have enough economic and financial issues to contend with committing rape and murder? Those are grave criminal acts fuelled by moral depravity and insanity; they have nothing to do with the need to survive by the perpetrators. Sadly, these are the kinds of scenarios that will continue to play out when leaderships of different hues in the society—government, corporate, traditional, religious, and family—have chosen to superintend over the near total collapse of the moral value system. For some time, there has been gradual loss of commitment to what should ordinarily constitute the shared values amongst citizens such as orderliness, decency, decorum and so on. The consequence is the emergence of a preponderance of aberrant characters who are undisciplined and totally bereft of the capacity to weigh the implications of their criminal and anti-social conducts before plunging head-long. And unfortunately, there has been insufficient, credible counter-action by security agencies to stem the growing slide into massive insecurity thrown up by both moral and economic challenges.

The alleged rapists had apparently seized on the burgeoning insecurity in the land, possibly influenced by the use of hard drugs to effect their dastardly and heinous rape plans on defenceless old women, leading to the killing of their victims in the hope that they would get away with the crime. These criminals may not even be first time offenders; it could be that the law did not apprehend them during their earlier escapades. However, their prompt arrest by the police this time around and the firm promise of diligent prosecution by the state police commissioner, Taiwo Jesubiyi, will send an important signal to them and their ilk that impunity is not always guaranteed. It is important to underscore the role of the office of citizens in these cases because it was the prompt action of neighbours and the swift response from police operatives that ensured the arrest of these culprits.

Rather than rest on their laurels, we urge the police to latch onto the success they have just recorded and the goodwill of the people they have earned thereby to up their ante in the area of crime prevention and reassure the citizenry of their capacity to deliver on their core mandate of protecting life and property. Specifically, they should intensify proper security monitoring in the society to assure citizens of their readiness to prevent criminally minded ones from swooping on hapless community members. And in particular, there is the need to appropriately respond to the growing increase in gender-based violence and crimes through focused public enlightenment and interdiction of those involved. As we have often reiterated, there is a pressing need for value reorientation and moral rearmament in the society in order to reconstruct and redirect the character and conduct of many community members to the path of decency and orderliness. In this regard, leaders at all tiers of the society have a duty to take the lead and provide leadership in a deliberate and intentional fashion.

It is of grave concern that the female gender is fast becoming an endangered species in this clime, not just because of the alarmingly burgeoning number of sexual perverts but also because the outlaws are often unrestrained by the age of their victims in visiting sexual violence on them. Minors and even babies are constantly at the mercy of paedophiles while girls and women, including the aged ones, as in the instant cases, are regularly assaulted sexually by depraved men. The society and government have the responsibility of offering proper security and safe environment for girls and women to live a worthy life. We urge the government to live up to this crucial social obligation by ensuring strict enforcement of rules and regulations on rape and other forms of sexual violence. It bears stressing too that the imposition of maximum sentences on culprits will help a great deal to significantly rein in this primitive and asocial proclivity for sexual predation in the society. Therefore, we enjoin the relevant state authorities to painstakingly investigate these cases, prosecute the suspects and punish them severely within the ambit of the law, if they are found culpable.

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