The Senate on Tuesday passed a bill prescribing life imprisonment for anyone, male or female, found guilty of sexually defiling minors in a move to stem the rising tide of child sexual abuse across the country.

The passage of the bill comes amid mounting concerns over increasing cases of paedophilia and child molestation, which have left many victims physically and psychologically scarred.

Reports from rights groups and law enforcement agencies in recent years show that Nigeria has witnessed an alarming surge in cases involving children as young as five being sexually assaulted by adults, including family members, teachers, and clerics.

Presenting the motion, Senator Adams Oshiomhole (APC–Edo North) stressed that the offence of defiling a minor should be treated differently from that of raping an adult.

“A minor is a child who cannot give consent and whose life can be permanently damaged by such an act. Those involved in defilement deserve severe punishment.

“I propose 20 years penalty for anyone found guilty. There are disturbing cases involving children as young as five or ten,” Oshiomhole said.

Deputy Senate President, Senator Jibrin Barau, also supported the motion, insisting that offenders should face punishment without the option of a fine.

Although Oshiomhole’s initial 20-year jail term proposal gained traction, it was later rejected after Senator Muhammad Aliero (Kebbi Central) argued that the punishment should be stiffer to serve as a deterrent.

“I want to propose that the punishment for defilement of minors should be life imprisonment, regardless of the offender’s gender,” Aliero said.

His position was immediately backed by Senator Solomon Adeola (Ogun West), who maintained that the gravity of the crime warranted the maximum penalty.

When the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, put the motion to a voice vote, the “ayes” were overwhelmingly in the majority.

Akpabio declared, “I hereby move that henceforth any man or woman who is guilty of defiling a minor should be sentenced to life imprisonment.”

The bill’s passage is expected to serve as a deterrent amid growing public concern that many child rape cases go unpunished due to weak enforcement and social stigma.

Over the past decade, several high-profile cases of minors being raped, some by trusted relatives and religious figures, have drawn widespread condemnation and renewed calls for harsher penalties.

In 2020, during the peak of the COVID-19 lockdown, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons reported a spike in cases of child defilement, with many offenders walking free due to loopholes in existing laws.

If signed into law, the new legislation would replace earlier provisions under Nigeria’s Criminal Code and Penal Code, which prescribed lighter sentences for offenders.