Niger Assembly passes bill prescribing death penalty for kidnappers, cattle rustlers

The Niger State House of Assembly has passed into law a bill prescribing death penalty for informants, kidnappers, and cattle rustlers in the State.

The bill titled “a Bill for Law to Amend Kidnapping and Cattle Rustling (Special provision) law 2021, a private member bill, was passed into law during the Tuesday plenary in Minna.

The bill prescribed death sentences by hanging in public to informants where the death of the victim occurs.

Chairman of the House Committee on Security, Intelligence and Judicial Matters, Hon. Jibrin Baba while presenting a report on the bill, said the committee convened a public hearing to obtain opinions from key players on security management.

He said the public hearing was to create public awareness about the proposed amendment to the law on kidnapping and cattle rustling in the state.

Baba said after the public hearing, the committee carefully studied the proposed amendment and came up with the following findings:

“That the bill seeks to address the challenges of informant and its penalty which was not provided in the principal law. That lack of provision to deal with informants in the law, intelligent information is being held for fear of safety, lack of evidence or provision to prosecute the culprit in the court of law.

“That the activities of informants have helped bandits in small measure to perpetuate their nefarious activities unabated.”

Responding, Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Abdullahi Bawa Wise said the bill shall come into operation on June 29, 2021.

(Nigerian Tribune)