TheCable

Nigerian actress Omoni Oboli has joined a host of other Nollywood stars in breaking the code of silence on rape, saying men can sometimes be raped.

Patience Ozokwor, Desmond Elliot, Ini Edo, Amechi Muonagor, Shawn Faqua, Makida Moka, Bimbo Peters, alongside other industry top shots joined Oboli in urging Nigerians to speak up on rape.

This they all did in a new movie, Code of Silence, written by Bola Aduwo and directed by Emem Isong.

Oboli, who starred as Myra, a lawyer and counsellor for rape victims, recently explained that she drew strength from the stories of a lot of victims who could be male or female.

She said the picture of a man pinning a woman down and forcing himself on her is enough to make anyone shudder, adding that no victim should keep silent on rape because anyone could be raped – even a nun.

“We should make them know that it’s not a taboo to talk about it. It’s not because of anything they did or didn’t do. You could be dressed as nuns and still get raped,” she said.

“Whether they are women or men – men also sometimes get raped – we must, as a society, ensure that they have a voice and not stigmatise them.

“It is because the rapist is sick in his mind that we need to make victims understand that and let them talk about it because the more they are able to talk about it, the more people will realise that there would be some naming and shaming.”

In contrast, the Nigerian law has no provision for raped males.

According to section 357 (Chapter 30) of the Nigerian criminal code, rape victims are lawfully regarded as female.

“Any person who has unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman or girl, without her consent, or with her consent, if the consent is obtained by force or by means of threats or intimidation of any kind, or by fear of harm, or by means of false and fraudulent representation as to the nature of the act, or, in the case of a married woman, by personating her husband, is guilty of an offence which is called rape,” the code reads.

For decades, Nigerian human rights lawyers have been debating the probability of male-rape, with little or no results.

Code of Silence currently shows at cinemas across the country and on Iroko Tv.