Abstract:
Female circumcision or genital mutilation has been criminalized in Ebonyi State
Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Law; which Law re-defined rape. These
provisions are meant to punish the violation of the dignity of the girl-child and women.
As Nigeria’s-judicial system is adversarial in nature, these offences can only be
established if the ingredients, as set out in the Law are established. This paper ventures
into the ingredients of these offences that must be established; and discovers that while
female circumcision was narrowly defined; genital mutilation was undefined; and the
concept of rape expanded beyond what the offence is known to be; albeit with some
doubts as to the all-inclusiveness of the definition of the expanded definition of rape. This
paper recommends a liberal definition of the three concepts and concludes that without
that; some convictions that would have been secured would not be secured.
