Criminal Laws of Lagos (CLL)

Under the CLL, rape is when a man has sexual intercourse with a woman or girl without her consent, or with incorrectly obtained consent. Consent can be incorrectly obtained where it is obtained:

• By force, impersonation, threat or intimidation of any kind
• By means of false and fraudulent representation as to the nature of the act.

As with the PC, the CLL explicitly states that sexual intercourse by a man with his wife cannot be unlawful, and therefore a man cannot rape his wife.

It is important to note here that in all 3 laws, rape can only occur when the vagina of the woman is penetrated. This does not mean that anal unlawful sexual intercourse is allowed. This is a crime and is covered under different descriptions in each legislation. The penalty for rape across all the laws is life imprisonment (however this is not a mandatory sentence in all of them).