Niger State Governor Abubakar Sani-Bello, on Friday signed into law a bill prescribing death penalty by hanging for cattle rustlers, bandits, kidnappers and informants in the state.
The bill was passed by the State House of Assembly on July 1 following the recent spate of banditry including kidnapping and cattle rustling in the state.
Bello said that kidnapping and cattle rustling Special Provisions Law of 2016 was amended to provide for the punishment of informants and all those involved in the aiding and abetting of kidnapping and cattle rustling in the state.
He said that informants who aid and abet kidnappers would now have to face the death sentence by hanging in public as now enshrined in the state law.
”The law now provides that whoever instigates any person to kidnap a person or rustle cattle, or intentionally aides, abets or facilitate by any acts of omission or commission of the offence of kidnapping and or cattle rustling is guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction to death by hanging in public,” he said.
The governor said the punitive measure was a good stride and had become necessary given the security challenges that have continued to threaten the peaceful coexistence of the state in particular and the country at large.
He regretted the “unpatriotic activities of informants” who, according to him, have contributed to thwarting efforts of the security agencies in combating the nefarious activities of kidnappers and cattle rustlers.
He noted that the vigilante amendment law was meant to invigorate and strengthen the state vigilante corps for better operational efficiency in the discharge of their statutory function of complementing the efforts of our conventional federal security forces.