Kebbi approves death sentence for kidnappers, life imprisonment for rapists

Kebbi State Government says kidnappers must now die by act of the law.

This was as Governor of North West state, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, signed a law that prescribes the death penalty for any such people convicted for the crime of kidnapping.

A statement by the Kebbi Government House on Thursday, January 28, 2021 said the governor assented to Model Penal Code 2021 to address the spate of kidnapping in the 100 person Fulani state.

By this revelation, it further tells that crime has no ethnic or religious coloration and therefore must be treated for what it is, if Nigeria must move out of the woods.  In South West and other regions of Southern Nigeria, Fulani tribe has been criminalized as the one doing kidnapping to wage war against non-Northern Nigerians and take over their land.

But the latest development poses questions for such claimers to tell whether Fulani needs to wage war against itself and take its own land by kidnapping in Kebbi and turns round to urge Nigerians to collectively face security challenges headlong and stop tracing ethnic and religion of criminals.

The Kebbi State’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Rahmatu Adamu Gulma, said kidnapping will be tried under Section 247 which specifies the death sentence.

Rape cases are also to be tried under Section 259 sub-section 1 of the code under which offenders will face life imprisonment, according to the statement signed by Bagudu’s spokesperson, Abubakar Mu’azu Dakingari.

Bagudu also signed the Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2021 into law, a law Gulma said would mean less custodial sentencing as the courts would have the flexibility of non-custodial sentencing for minor offences.

She said Kebbi’s prisons would therefore be less congested, and there would be accelerated as well as speedy trials of criminal offences.