Nigerian senate has unanimously adopted death penalty for anyone involved in kidnapping, which is a rising crime the country’s southern region where victims have included senators and schoolchildren.
The lawmakers unanimously adopted the report of the Senate Joint Committee on police affairs, national security and intelligence after which Senator Ben Murray-Bruce said: “Kidnapping is a very serious problem with grave implications in several areas of the economy.”
The committee recommended that a law prescribing death penalty for abduction be enacted as a national response for the phenomenon.
Senators took turns to describe their experiences as they shared how their own relatives got kidnapped and demands were made for ransom.
Senator Adamu Aliero of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) recounted the ordeals of abductees and what their families go through during such experience.
“Anyone convicted of kidnapping should be sentenced to death,” Aliero said.
The adoption of the committees’ report came a day after police rescued a former Senator Iyabo Anisulowo, who had been abducted last Wednesday in southwestern Ogun State. Her abductor had demanded two million naira ($10,152) in return for her freedom.
Incumbent Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu recalled how he was abducted on September 10, 2000, and kept for two days before he was released.
Nigeria’s most prominent abduction was the April 14, 2014, ferrying away of some 276 schoolchildren by Boko Haram militants.
Only 57 of those girls have so far been accounted for, with 219 still believed to be held in captivity. [myad]
