The Nigerian Senate, Tuesday, passed a bill that prescribes 10 years to life imprisonment as punishment for anyone guilty of kidnapping.
The bill tagged ‘The Criminal Code Act (Amendment) Bill, 2020’ sponsored by Oluremi Tinubu (APC, Lagos Central), contains amendments to the criminal code, which is already in motion in the Southern part of Nigeria.
The bill seeks to delete the statute of limitation on defilement, increase punishment for the offence of kidnapping and remove gender restrictions in the offence of rape and other related matters.
Also, the bill as amended and passed by the Senate has now approved the deletion of the limitation period for the prosecution of defilement.
According to the Bill, anyone who commits rape will be prosecuted any time the matter is filed.
A critical part of the Bill also removed gender restrictions on the offence of rape by explaining that both male and female could be raped.
If Bill eventually becomes law, defilement cases can be actionable at any time.