In a bid to address the rising wave of kidnapping and hostage-taking across the country, members of the House of Representatives have taken steps to prescribe death by hanging as a penalty for the crime in Nigeria.
The lawmakers took this decision during Wednesday plenary by passing a bill to prohibit kidnapping, hostage-taking and prescribing punishment for its contravention through second reading.
The bill was however committed to the committees on Justice, Police Affairs and Human Rights for further legislative scrutiny.
Jointly sponsored by Hon. Friday Itulah (PDP, Edo State), Hon Samson Osagie (ACN, Edo State) and Hon Dickson Henry Seriake (PDP, Bayelsa State), the initial penalty was life imprisonment for anybody liable on conviction for getting involved in kidnapping acts, but it was amended.
Speaking on the bill, members argued that life jail sentence was too mild for kidnappers as punishment considering the torture they cause their victims.
A lawmaker who narrated his experience, Hon Rotimi Makinde (ACN , Osun State], said he was put through hell by some kidnappers who wanted him to end his bid to run for a seat into the National Assembly.
The bill also recommends a jail term of not more than 10 years without an option of fine for any persons who attempt to commit an offence under Section 1[1] and Section 2 of the act on conviction.
According to the bill, kidnapping involves seizure, confinement, enticement, decoys, abduction, concealment, or carrying away of another person by any means whatsoever with intent to hold or detain the person for a ransom or extortion.
The bill also explains that any person who seizes or detains and threatens to compel a third person or a governmental organisation to do or obtain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for release of the person detained, or attempts or conspires to do so is liable on conviction to life imprisonment.
Kidnapping in Nigeria started in the Niger Delta region and became popular in the entire south-south region.