A bill prescribing a death penalty for informants, kidnappers and cattle rustlers has been passed into law by the Niger State House of Assembly.
The bill was passed into law in Minna, the Niger State Capital, during the plenary on Tuesday.
Titled ‘A Bill for Law to Amend Kidnapping and Cattle Rustling (Special Provision) law 2021’, prescribed death sentence by hanging in public to informants.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Security, Intelligence and Judicial Matters, Jibrin Baba, noted the committee convened a public hearing to derive opinions from key players on security management.
He said the public hearing was to create public awareness about the proposed amendment to the law on kidnapping and cattle rustling in the state, Tribune reports.
Baba however stated that after the public hearing, the committee carefully studied the proposed amendment and came up with the following findings:
That the bill seeks to address the challenges of informant and its penalty which was not provided in the principal law.
That lack of provision to deal with informants in the law, intelligent information is being held for fear of safety, lack of evidence or provision to prosecute the culprit in the court of law.
The activities of informants have helped bandits in small measure to perpetuate their nefarious activities unabated.
Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Abdullahi Bawa Wise, while responding, said the bill shall come into operation on June 29, 2021.
