Senate canvasses death penalty for kidnappers

The Senate said on Wednesday, that it would begin the process of enacting a law that would prescribe capital punishment for kidnappers.

It also called on state governments to enact laws that would prosecute kidnappers and other crime-related offences in their jurisdiction, in order to stem the growing menace of kidnappings in the country,

These were agreed to by the Senators after considering the report of the Joint Committee on Police Affairs, National Security and Intelligence in respect of a motion on the unfortunate recurrence of kidnapping and hostage-taking in Nigeria, entitled, “A National Wake-Up Call.”

As part of the resolutions, the Senate also recommended that the Inspector General of Police and Director-General of the Department of State Services, DSS, in particular as well as other security agencies be encouraged to do more, while asking the Federal Government to take the funding of security agencies as a priority project.

Read also: Father of six tor tortured to death by policemen in Ogun

It also called for greater efforts at creating employment opportunities for the nation’s teaming unemployed youths and that security agencies should embark on training and retraining of their personnel for effective capacity building.

Though the recommendation for death penalty was not originally in the recommendation of the joint committee, it was recommended by Senator Adamu Aliero (APC-Kebbi Central) after the six resolutions were already adopted by the lawmakers.

Contributing to the debate, Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, noted that family members of kidnapped persons go through psychological trauma, having experienced it himself.

While presenting the joint committee’s report, its chairman, Senator Abu Ibrahim, said that interacting with the Director-General of DSS, he said that in October 2015, a total of 108 kidnap and sea piracy incidents in 24 states occurred, with180 victims, including 26 foreigners, involved.

Ibrahim listed the states to include Abia, Adamawa; Akwa Ibom; Anambra, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Bayelsa, Cross River, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Imo, Kebbi, Kaduna, Kogi, Kwara, Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Rivers, Sokoto and Zamfara.

During the same month, N84,500,000 was reportedly demanded as ransom by kidnappers, while some victims’ family and employers purportedly paid a total of N28,016,000 ransom.

 

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