Tag Archives: Death Penalty

Weeks after Lagos took the decision, Bauchi also okays death penalty for kidnappers.

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Bauchi state government has signed into law, a bill which makes kidnapping now punishable with death or life imprisonment.

Ibrahim Umar , the state attorney-general and commissioner for justice, made this known on Tuesday while briefing journalists in the state.

Umar said Mohammed Abdullahi, governor of the state, assented to the bill on Monday.

“Whoever is guilty of the offence of kidnapping shall be punished with life imprisonment,” Umar said.

“If the victim dies as a result of the kidnapping, the offender shall be punished with death.”

Umar said whoever “seizes, confines, tricks, abducts or carries away” anybody and holds to ransom or otherwise with or without a weapon, would be seen as commiting the offence of kidnapping.

He said the state government had also signed into law, a bill for provision of free emergency treatment to accident victims within 24 hours of occurrence.

Umar said the government would provide for each public hospital, an accident and emergency unit, intensive care unit and a blood bank equipped with personnel and effective communication gadgets.

“The law states that the state government shall provide funds and logistics for joint patrol of the hospital management board and Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) for rescuing accident victims in the three senatorial districts of the state,” Umar said.

“Any government hospital that fails to accept an accident victim shall have its officers on duty that day punished according to civil service rules, including reduction in rank.”

He said that the law applied to all accidents, including domestic fire, industrial fire, plane crash, flood disaster, snake bite, dog bite, rainstorm, bomb blasts and gunshot.

On the fisheries bill, Umar said the law is to regulate fisheries in order to promote a healthy lifestyle and ensure that fishes would be free from contamination.

On February 1, the Lagos state house of assembly approved death penalty for kidnappers whose victims die in their custody, and life imprisonment in situations where victims do not die.

 

Source: The Cable

Singapore: Execution of Chijoke Obioha violates international law – Amnesty International

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Reacting to the executions of Chijioke Stephen Obioha, a Nigerian national, and Devendran Supramaniam, a Malaysian national, by the Singapore authorities, Josef Benedict, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said:

“The Singapore authorities have brazenly violated international law with these shameful executions. The death penalty is a cruel and irreversible punishment that most of the world has turned its back on. Singapore continues to remain an outlier, executing people for crimes that do not meet the ‘most serious’ threshold to which the death penalty must be restricted under international law.

“The executions took place secretively, with some details only emerging at the eleventh hour. When a person’s life is involved, the authorities must be fully transparent about their actions, to ensure that everyone has a right to a fair trial and due process is followed, allowing the families and the public at large can have easily access to all information on the case.

The death penalty is never a solution. It will not rid Singapore of drugs or serve as an effective deterrent.”

NBA Chairman Advocates Death Penalty For Corrupt Public Officers

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Mr Mansuma Issa, Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ilorin branch, has advocated capital punishment for corrupt public servants in the country.

 

Issa, who made the suggestion in llorin, Kwara, on Sunday while speaking with newsmen, also said that the punishment should be extended to other African countries. He decried the level of corruption in Africa, especially in Nigeria, and said that capital punishment would stem graft and brazen looting of public funds.

 

According to him, countries like Singapore, China, Taiwan, Vietnam and South Korea which adopted death penalty to curb corruption had succeeded in fight against corruption.

 

The NBA chairman said that corruption had become endemic in Africa and had necessitated the association’s support for the corruption war being fought by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. He lamented that funds which would have been spent on the health, education and agriculture as well as for the fight against terrorism were diverted to individual pockets.

 

He called for the strengthening of the judiciary so that offenders could face trial in accordance with the law.

 

Issa said that the Nigerian judiciary was still operating pre-independence pattern and in colonial courts where judges still wrote in long hands, describing the act as “very stressful and retrogressive’’. He appealed to the federal and state governments to provide the judiciary with verbatim recording machines to ease their assignments.

 

He assured that judges in the country could still be trusted, especially in the fight against corruption.

 

Issa, however, admitted that there might be few cases of corruption in the judiciary and urged the disciplinary committee of NBA not to take the issue of corruption in the judiciary lightly. He said that any judge found guilty should be dealt with accordingly.

 

On Constitution amendment, he said that the 1979 Constitution was well crafted except for the variation in the laws of the principles of federalism and the control of resources.

 

He called for the modification of those areas of the Constitution, noting that there was no “perfect constitution’’ anywhere in the world but a “workable constitution’’.

 

Issa disclosed that the greatest challenge facing NBA in Kwara was allegations of diversion of clients’ funds by some of its members.

 

He warned that anyone found wanting in such allegation would be forwarded to the national disciplinary committee of the association for necessary action.

 

He urged the government to improve the condition of the prisons, saying that it was also part of the challenges the association faced while fighting for the right of its clients.

 

He described the condition of Nigerian prisons as embarrassing and dehumanising and said that inmates should not be treated as enemies of the people.

 

 

(NAN)

Death Penalty For Looters, NLC Demands

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Organised labour unions, the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress, have jointly called for capital punishment for anybody found guilty of corruption in the country.

The President of the NLC, Mr. Ayuba Wabba, and his counterpart in the TUC, Mr. Bobboi Kaigama, made the call on Tuesday at a press conference on a national rally against corruption. The rally is scheduled for Thursday (tomorrow).

The union leaders said they would lead workers in a solidarity march to the office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the National Assembly complex and the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to declare support for President Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign against corruption.

Read More: punchng

Cross River Legalises Death Penalty for Kidnappers

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Following the incessant spade of kidnappings in the country ,Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, monday signed into law a bill that prescribes death penalty for convicted kidnappers in the state.
The anti-kidnapping bill was one of 10 bills the governor signed into law at the state Executive Chambers witnessed by the Speaker and members of the state House of Assembly.

The law also empowers the state to seize assets as well as freeze accounts belong to convicted
kidnappers and those who aid and abet kidnapping in the state.

Death Penalty For Looters, Writers Demand

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The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has said that it would propose a bill on death penalty for anyone convicted of stealing from the public treasury.

National Coordinator of HURIWA, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the group would be sending a draft of the proposed legislation to the National Assembly when it reconvenes on September 29; adding that the proposed bill would specifically target those who steal public funds meant for essential services, especially in the health, education, roads, water, electricity and defence.

Applauding President Muhammadu Buhari’s ongoing anti-graft campaign, he however, faulted the handpicking of judges for cases involving corrupt persons.

Warning against the breach of the constitution and the principle of separation of powers, he noted that such measures are tantamount to the president operating like a monarch keen to usurp the duties of the judiciary.

“We can’t allow the nation go through jungle justice anymore,” he said. “We do not see any merit in the president setting up a panel to screen judges in a bid to get the incorruptible ones. As the head of the executive arm, he doesn’t have the power to screen judges. This is a democracy. He cannot confer on himself the powers unknown in our constitution.”

Credit: dailytimes

Death Penalty For Corruption, Protesters Task NASS

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Some protesters stormed the National Assembly on Wednesday and demanded a legislation that would prescribed death penalty as punishment for corruption in the country.

Speaking under a group, Voice of the Voiceless, they said there was no way Nigeria would made progress if corruption in public office was not brought under control.

They wrote separate letters to the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara.

In the letter to the House, which was signed by the National Coordinator of the group, Mr. Oliver Ezeala, the protesters wrote, “Corruption, as we are all aware of, has eaten so deep into the fabric of this great nation and we are strongly advocating the death penalty to anybody who is found guilty of corrupt practices, no matter how highly-placed such an individual is in the society.

“Nigeria has tried every other measure of deterrent but to no avail.

“We want this great nation to toe the path of countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, China and other world powers who have achieved so much developmental strides as a result of their zero tolerance for corruption.”

However, they said they were confident that with President Muhammadu Buhari in power, the fight against corruption would be fast-tracked.

“We believe that he will fight this our common hydra-headed enemy to a complete standstill,” the letter added.

Read More: punchng