Sanwo-Olu signs bill recommending 21-year jail term for cultists in Lagos

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Monday, signed a bill that recommended a 21-year jail term for convicted cultists in the state.

The governor, according to a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Gboyega Akoshile, signed the Prohibition of Unlawful Societies and Cultism of 2021 Bill at the swearing-in of newly appointed members of the State’s Public Procurement Agency Governing Board and two Permanent Secretaries at Banquet Hall in the State House, Alausa, Ikeja.

He also signed three other bills – Lagos State Audit Service Commission (Amendment) Law of 2019, Lagos State Public Procurement Bill of 2021, and Coronavirus Pandemic Emergency Law of 2021 – at the event.

The state’s House of Assembly had in February passed the anti-cultism bill.

READ ALSO: Sanwo-Olu signs Lagos 2021 budget of N1.163tr

The bill also stipulates a 15-year jail term for anyone found guilty of abetting cultists and residents who willfully allow their properties to be used as meeting points by cultists.

The statement read: “The anti-cultism law repeals the Cultism (Prohibition) Law of 2007 (now Cap. C18, Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2015) and provides for more stringent punitive measures, as well as makes its application all-encompassing and applicable to the general public, as against the restriction of the previous law to students of tertiary institutions.”

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