Lagos Assembly Approves Death Penalty for Kidnappers
The Lagos State House of Assembly has passed into law, a bill for a law to provide for the prohibition of act of kidnapping and for other connected purposes.
The Speaker, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa made this known at plenary on Thursday.
The bill states that any person who kidnaps , abducts, detains, captures or takes another person by any means or tricks with intent to demand ransom or do anything against the victim’s will commit an offence and is liable on conviction to death sentence.
It would be recalled that the Bill was presented on the floor of the House by the Chairman Committee on Judiciary, Hon. Funmilayo Tejuosho some weeks ago stated that the intention of the bill is to further expand the scope of the existing kidnapping law to accommodate new challenges and strategies to curb the menace in our society.
At the Public Hearing , preceding further consideration of the bill at today’s plenary , Stakeholders supported the noble idea and also applaud the steps taken by the State government especially on a portion of the bill which provides that any officer of the police or relevant authority in charge of investigating any act of kidnapping who discloses the name and details of any informant or state any matter which might lead to the discovery of the informant’s identity commit an offence and is liable on conviction to a term of 10years imprisonment.
Attempt to kidnap is also criminalized under the bill and it was suggested that such a person, would be committed to life imprisonment.
