{"id":2305,"date":"2013-04-17T20:43:37","date_gmt":"2013-04-17T20:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigeria-news\/death-penalty-for-kidnappers-in-delta-governor-vetoed\/"},"modified":"2013-04-17T20:43:37","modified_gmt":"2013-04-17T20:43:37","slug":"death-penalty-for-kidnappers-in-delta-governor-vetoed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/death-penalty-for-kidnappers-in-delta-governor-vetoed\/","title":{"rendered":"Death penalty for kidnappers in Delta, Governor vetoed"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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

\"Suspected <\/p>\n

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

<\/img> <\/img> <\/img> <\/img> <\/div>\n

——————————————————————————————————————————————-
Posted in Nigeria News. <\/a>A DisNaija.Com<\/a> network.<\/p>\n

Source: PM News<\/p>\n

DisNaija.Com<\/b> publishes regular posts on Nigeria News,<\/a> Nigerian Newspapers,<\/a> Online Nigeria Gist.<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow us on Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Follow @Dis_Naija<\/a>
\n