The House of Assembly of Nigeria’s southern state of Delta, once notorious for being the axis of kidnappers, on Wednesday in Asaba passed into law, the Anti-kidnapping Bill 2013, imposing a death sentence on any person convicted of kidnapping in the state.<\/p>\n
Cultists and terrorists will also earn a death penalty, while the property of the kidnappers will be confiscated.<\/p>\n
The law was passed without Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan’s assent. Uduaghan withheld assent because he wanted the sanction to be life imprisonment.<\/p>\n
Ignoring their governor’s objection, the assembly mustered two-thirds of the members to support the passage of the law.<\/p>\n
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Suspected kidnappers of Prof Okonjo : death sentence now awaits them if convicted in Delta<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
The lawmakers had earlier passed the bill on 18 December 2012 and sent it to Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan for his assent.<\/p>\n
In the letter to the members of the house read by the Speaker, Mr Victor Ochei, on Wednesday, Gov.Emmanuel Uduaghan said: “After full consideration to the Bill as passed by the house and presented to me for assent, no doubt, there are fundamental and compelling issues, some of which are constitutional”.<\/p>\n
“This has made it necessary for me to withhold my assent on the bill. It is my view that death sentence punishment is not likely to serve as a deterrent or antidote for crime of kidnapping.<\/p>\n
“It is suggested that the sentence should be imprisonment for a longer term, that is life imprisonment.<\/p>\n
“My reasons for suggesting long term of imprisonment are, it is a well known fact that death sentence is the penalty for the offences of armed robbery and murder.<\/p>\n
“Notwithstanding death sentence imposed for those offences, they are still being committed on a daily basis in this country.<\/p>\n
“As at today, there are more armed robbery cases pending compared to kidnapping cases in the various judicial divisions of high court.<\/p>\n
“The second reason why I withhold my assent to the bill is that there is currently world-wide campaign calling for the abolition of death sentence from the law books.<\/p>\n
“This campaign has been taken up by the Nigerian Institute of Advance Legal Studies among several agencies.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
In a reaction, the lawmakers overruled the governor\u2019s position and went through the legislative process to bring the bill into law with effect from April 17, 2013.<\/p>\n
The speaker said that section 100 (5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria stipulated that a two-third of the house was required to veto the governor on any bill.<\/p>\n
According to Ochei, out of the 29 members of the house, 26 signed the passage of the bill into law on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The speaker directed the Clerk of the house, Mr Lyna Ocholor, to enroll the law in the High Court of Delta. (NAN)<\/p>\n