We are re- running the topic of last week’s edition on ‘beyond pardon’. It is a case of a girl who was kidnapped, gang raped at 18. She did not tell her family about the ugly incident because of the stigma, but she found out that she is pregnant. What do you think she can do about it? Hear what a renowned actress has to say on this heart- rendering issue.

Ernest Obi

She should terminate the pregnancy – Ernest Obi, Actor
This is a very sad story I must confess. In fact, it is not what anybody would wish for an enemy or even expect. The truth still stands that she was kidnapped, gang raped and now she is pregnant. A lot of religious people will not agree with what I am about to say, but they should not forget that the child is not a child born out of love. Also that, the existence of the child should not be paramount on the minds of the people, but the victim of circumstance (the raped girl) and her continuous existence.

Secondly, medically speaking the law allows abortion with good and justifiable reasons and left with me, that child is not a child that should be allowed to come into this world and it is only justifiable to terminate it.

It is unfair on the victim; it is also not fair that she will bring up a child remembering her sordid experience in the hands of the rapists. I know that it is equally unfair on the child who will come into this world to face so much scorn and hatred on what he does not know anything about in the first place and it is not his fault. In short, I don’t think it is fair on everybody involve.

Ejiro Okurame

Let her abort the baby – Ejiro Okurame, Actress
We all know abortion is a sin before God but it is highly recommended in cases like this… It is not advisable to keep such pregnancy judging by the circumstances in which the act was committed… One has to consider the risk involved in unprotected sex. STDs and AIDS can be acquired from acts less than this, meanwhile when the child is born eventually whose name will the child bear since the victim (mother) was gang raped? If the child grows up without any infection or disease in his or her blood, he or she might be sick psychologically when eventually told of the circumstance in which he or she was born. That his fathers were criminals- con- rapist… The child might end up like the fathers or out of frustration, shame and the stigma of it all commit suicide.

It’s a complicated situation –

Bovi Ugboma

, Comedian
If I have to offer my candid, I will advice her to abort the baby because it is a complicated situation.
First of all, that will be a child of circumstance. Secondly, she cannot ascertain the father of the child. Thirdly, if she eventually knows the father of the child, he cannot be acceptable even if he becomes a Priest later on.
Judging from our human nature, that is my only advice.

Mohamed Oyibo

Get rid of the pregnancy- Mohammed Adjarho Oyibo, Business man
Medically, it has to be established if the pregnancy is as a result of the rape then abort. This is capable of solving two problems: Firstly, the associated cost and burden it will place on the raped and secondly the psychological trauma and stigma it will place on the raped and the product of rape.

This issue should be looked at from the social point of view, the stigma, the psychological trauma on the girl or lady in question. We are living in a society where rape is not something people are proud to talk about and hers’ only came out because she was also kidnapped and she got pregnant in the process. If not for the pregnancy, l don’t think she will ever discuss it. Meanwhile, when the child grows up, he does not want to be bored and depressed to find out that he or she is an outcome of RAPE.