The Senate have passed a bill which outlaws abduction, wrongful restraint or confinement for ransom and imposes the death sentence on kidnappers and 30 years in jail for people who collude with them.
The bill sponsored by Isa Misau, APC-Bauchi, was passed into law after a consideration of the report by Senate committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters. Senator Chukwuka Utazi, Enugu-North, said the bill sought to combat and prevent any form of kidnapping in Nigeria by giving wider powers to the Inspector-General of Police to ensure adequate policing of the crime.
On Wednesday the deputy police commissioner in the northwestern Kaduna state and his wife were kidnapped. It follows another high profile incident over the weekend when gunmen kidnapped the head of a zoo in the mid-western Edo state.
In June, police arrested a high profile kidnapper Chukwudumeme Onwuamadike, popularly known as Evans, who in August pleaded guilty to a two-count charge of conspiracy and kidnapping brought against him by the Lagos’ state government.
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