senates aprovess death penalty

THE Senate, yesterday, agreed to begin a
process for the enactment of a law that would prescribe
capital punishment for kidnappers across the country.
The Senate also asked state governments to enact laws
that would prosecute kidnappers and other crime-related
offences in their jurisdiction and recommended that the
Inspector General of Police and Director-General of the
Department of State Services, DSS, in particular as well
as other security agencies be encouraged to do more.
These resolutions of the Senate were sequel to the
consideration of a report of the Joint Committee on
Police Affairs, National Security and Intelligence in
respect of a motion on the unfortunate recurrence of
kidnapping and hostage-taking in Nigeria, entitled, "A
National Wake-Up Call."
Kidnap-syndicate
The Senate also recommended that the funding of
security agencies be taken as a priority project, bearing in
mind that the practice of envelop budgetary for security
agencies had proved ineffective, adding that efforts
should be put in place to create employment
opportunities for the nation’s teaming unemployed
youths.
It also agreed that security agencies should embark on
training and retraining of their personnel for effective
capacity building.
The Senate equally stated that synergy and information
sharing between security agencies should be pursued
vigorously.
The recommendation for death penalty, as adopted by
the Senate, was recommended by Senator Adamu Aliero
(APC-Kebbi Central) as an additional recommendation
after the six resolutions were already adopted by the
lawmakers.
In his contribution, Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike
Ekweremadu, noted that family members of kidnapped
persons go through psychological trauma, having
experienced it himself.
He said: “Just recently, one of my relations also was
kidnapped. So, I believe I am talking as an expert or an
experienced person in kidnapping. I know the psychology
of kidnappers because I stayed for two days with them.
"These are normal human beings who are sometimes
looking for money and also afraid of security agencies. I
think there are three types of kidnappers. There are some
who kidnapped either to make a statement or to
intimidate the government, like the Boko Haram people
and the Niger Delta militants.
“Then there is another type of kidnappers, these are just
normal armed robbers. Sometimes, they just kidnapped
you, put you in the boot and they can even use the
vehicle as an escape or they use it to rob.
"Such kidnappers, once they succeed, it’s either they take
away the vehicle, use it or they dump their victim. But the
third type, which is very dangerous, is the professional
kidnappers, who kidnapped for money and that is the one
we are focusing on this afternoon.
“We have encouraged this type of kidnapping because we
panic and pay money most times. This kind of
kidnappers, when they take you, they put you somewhere
else and they can refer you to negotiate so that they can
set you free and go for another business.
"Most times, our people are reluctant to delay or endure
the inconvenience or the hardship and then they quickly
negotiate and if we can discourage this kind of
kidnappings, the only way forward is to insist that you will
not pay."
Firing squad for kidnappers.
Also in his contribution, Senator Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi
West), recommended firing squad for kidnappers.
While contributing to the report, the Senate Minority
Leader, Godswill Akpabio (PDP, Akwa Ibom), regretted
that kidnapping escalated in Nigeria when ex-governor
and now Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige, was
kidnapped around 2002.
Earlier in the presentation of the report, Chairman of the
Joint Committee, Senator Abu Ibrahim, noted that the
Senate at its sitting on Thursday, November 19, 2015,
deliberated on a motion on the unfortunate recurrence of
kidnappings and hostage-taking in Nigeria.
According to him, the Senate at the time, mandated its
Committees on Police Affairs and National Security and
Intelligence to