Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has charged President Bola Tinubu to declare a state of emergency on kidnapping.
HURIWA, in a statement yesterday by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, condemned the recent murder of worker of a bank in Suleja in Niger State, Austin Austin Ilom and the Ilorin, Kwara State based Roman Catholic Monk Brother Oyekachi Godwin Eze by kidnappers.
Onwubiko suggested that the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, and the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, should be directed by the President to work with the 36 states’ governments and the FCT, to come up with a framework for the declaration of kidnapping as a national emergency.
Also, he recommended that both the 36 State Houses of Assembly and the National Assembly should amend the relevant criminal laws applicable and then pass a uniform law recognising kidnapping as a capital offence and set a special courts to fast track trials of cases of kidnappings in Nigeria.
In addition, he said state governors should not continue to observe moratorium on the execution of convicted persons tried under capital offences such as kidnappings.
“The distribution, according to states, shows that Borno has the highest cases of insecurity in the country with a total of 527 incidents which led to the death of 1,746 individuals and abduction of 246.
“Kaduna State has the second highest cases of insecurity in the country with 216 incidents spread across 22 local government areas. A total of 790 people were killed and 1,137 kidnapped.
“Zamfara recorded 110 incidents in 13 local government areas. 797 people were killed and 356 kidnapped.
“The daily high toll of casualties from the dastardly criminal enterprise of armed kidnappings of citizens by daredevil killers, goes to show only one thing: that the Federal and state governments would have to jointly implement strategic approaches to stamp out the crime of armed kidnappings,” he said.
