Many bizarre stories come out of Nigeria these days, but the one that came out of Gusau, Zamfara State this weekend will surely rank as a world-beater.
According to newspaper reports, three women were arraigned before a HigherShari'a Court in Gusau for allegedly r*ping a 20 year old man. The man, Abdulrahman Sulaiman, was a Man-O-War volunteer who went to the Women Multi-Purpose Center in Gusau to help organize a preaching session organizedby the state's Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs for women during the holy month of Ramadan.
According to the police prosecutors three women, Hannatu Ibrahim [23], Wosila Hassan [20] and Rukayya Hassan [21] conspired among themselves and serially r*ped Abdulrahman until he lost consciousness! How did this happen? The prosecutors said they lured him into a corner of the Women's Centre, where they "forced" him to made love with them in turn until poor Abdulrahman fell unconscious. It was said that he was rushed to hospital, where he was resuscitated. The three women have now been remanded in prison custody until Monday next week, when witnesses will be called to the court to testify against them.
I suspect that half of Gusau town will turn up in court on that day to hear the evidence against the three "conspirators." If the three women and the man in question actually did what they were alleged to have done 1] at a preaching session 2] during the month of Ramadan 3] when the centre was brimming withother women and children, then it will be a new low in religious morality in this part of the world.
The evidence will however be very interesting and it may force this country's lawyers and jurists to have to rewrite the law on r*pe. Some years ago, I heard a senior lawyer say on television that the law on rape as it stands todaydoes not envisage a woman r*ping a man, unless if he is a minor who is seduced by a much older woman. Otherwise, the lawyer said, "a woman cannot really r*pe a man because it requires his willing cooperation" to effect the act.
It will be interesting to see if the witnesses will say Abdulrahman shouted for help while he was being raped. Or what the three women used to force his cooperation—a gun or a knife, for instance. Anatomically speaking, while a man can successfully rape a woman who is not cooperating but who goes limp at gunpoint, the same can hardly be said of the reverse case. A man who has agun or a knife pointed at him and goes limp cannot be successfully r*ped!
My only fear with this story is that many men in Gusau and around this Nigeria will wistfully wish that they were the ones that were raped. Mark you, the three alleged "conspirators" are young women hardly out of teen ages. They will find many willing takers in Gusau and elsewhere in Nigeria without resorting to any force! In fact, if someone were to call for male volunteers to be r*ped, in this Nigeria, the queues will be longer than the men who lined upat the Hisbah Office in Kano to marry widows and divorcees !
David Silva
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