Lafia
Henceforth, anybody convicted of kidnapping in Nasarawa state faces either life imprisonment or death sentence as Abdullahi Sule signed Anti-kidnaping Bill 2019 into law.
The bill was recently passed by the state House of Assembly.
The governor also signed into law, the Child’s Right Protection Executive Order (2005) which bans street begging across the state.
Duaglobalnews reports that the twin events took place atTaal Conference Hotel, Lafia on Wednesday.
Sule said the anti-kidnapping law spelt out various offences relating to kidnapping and prescribed stringent punishment for perpetrators.
The child’s right protection order, according to him prohibits street begging and provides punishment for parents who, out of negligence, abandoned their children to beg in the streets to survive.
He warned that any building used in keeping victims of kidnapping and other heinous crimes would henceforth be forfeited to government.
The Governor, however, said that the law banning street begging would only be implemented after ways had been identified to address the menace of street begging by the Almajiris.
The governor said this was to “guarantee the safety, security, wellbeing, care good health and education, and the future of our children.”
Sule, who noted that the state had no problem with the Almajiri School System, said the state government would however sanction parents who sent their children to such schools from faraway places, only to to abandon them to take to street begging.
Earlier, the State Attorney- General and Commissioner for Justice, Associate Professor Abdulkarim Abubakar Kana, expressed concern that the spate of kidnapping and related offences in the state had assumed alarming proportions.
Kana also said that government efforts to combat crimes and the passage of the bill for assent, demonstrated the concern of the Executive and the Legislature’s approach to issues touching on the lives of the ordinary people in the state.
He said the Executive order on child’s right protection was geared toward protecting children from exploitation and abuse, neglect, abandonment,as well as guaranteeing education for all.
According to Abubarkar, the Executive order will ensure full implementation of the Child’s Right Law in the state.
Members of the Nasarawa State Executive Council, members of the State Security Council, Civil Society Groups, top government functionaries, as well as traditional rulers attended the occasion.
The traditional rulers were led by the Chairman of the Nasarawa State Council of Chiefs, the Emir of Lafia, Justice Sidi Bage (rtd).
