The  Ijebu Youths Association has canvassed life imprisonment for any person found guilty of rape or defilement of women or minors in the state.

The group made the call at a press briefing on Thursday in Abeokuta.

The President of the association, Wasiu Fayomi, decried the incessant cases of rape being recorded in the country.

” The rape pandemic has hit most Nigerian youths, especially the girls, depriving them of their innocence and exposing them to shame, sexual diseases and other hardships.

“We’re bewildered by the sheer increase in the number of rape cases and the associated dangers, and many times death, in the last few months.

“Look at the case of Vera Omozuwa who was gang raped and killed in Benin while studying inside a church.

“The police was reported to have recorded over 720 rape cases within the first six months of the year alone which is scary,” he said.

Fayomi said based on the damage done by what he called the perverse criminal elements, any rapist caught deserved no less penalty than life imprisonment.

He urged the state assembly to come up with a law and other stringent measures that could be deployed to fight the “animalistic behavior” to a standstill and check growing sexual violence across the country.

The youth leader said the obstacle to the fight against rape was the reported inability to successfully prosecute many rape cases.

“This is why we believe that our police officers must be more diligent in their prosecutions while necessary law must also be enacted to fight this evil,” he said.

Fayomi commended the wife of the governor, Mrs. Bamidele Abiodun, as well as the Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs. Funmi Efuwape, for championing the call for concerted efforts toward curbing the criminal act and ensuring that victims got justice