Kidnapping: Lagos to impose death by hanging

Ambode Urges Collaboration To Win War Against Terrorism

The Lagos State Assembly has recommended death by hanging as penalty for kidnapping in Lagos State. This was revealed yesterday when the Assembly held a public hearing on a Bill for a law to provide for the prohibition of the act of kidnapping and other connected purposes.

The bill sponsored by the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, stated that any person, who kidnaps, abducts, details or captures or takes another person by any means with intent to demand ransom or do anything against his/her will commits an offence, and is liable on conviction to death sentence.

The death penalty in the Bill by the Assembly is a stiffer penalty for the 21 years imprisonment at present provided in the state criminal code.

It is not only persons found guilty of kidnapping that would be penalised, those who participated in the process or attempted kidnapping would not go unpunished, as the Bill provides that any person, who knowingly or willfully allows or permits his premises, building or a place belonging or occupied to which he has control of, to be used for the purposes of keeping a person kidnapped is guilty of an offence under the law and liable on conviction to a term of imprisonment of 14 years without an option of fine.

Also, a Chief Magistrate in Lagos State, Mrs Seri Sholebo said that it was fundamental to add conspiracy to kidnapping, disclosing that convicting offenders on the basis of conspiracy since 2011 had been a herculean task.

Meanwhile, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has said that to win the war against terrorism in Nigeria would require collaborative efforts among the citizens and strong synergy among security agencies.