NAIJAFEED

Friday, October 1, 2010

Proposed Death Penalty for Kidnappers

The House of Representatives has signalled its intention to introduce a bill to curb the menace of kidnapping and hostage taking in the country. The lawmakers expressed their support for capital punishment for anyone found guilty of the offences. They weighed in on the disturbing trend during a public hearing organized by the joint House Committee on the Judiciary, Justice, Human Rights and Police Affairs which held recently at the National Assembly.

Committee chairman Bala Na'Allah observed that unless stiffer penalties were meted out to perpetrators, prospective investors including expatriates would continue to be discouraged from investing in the country. Already, the Nigeria Immigration Service, the Nigeria Institute of Legal Arbitration and the Nigerian Legal Aid Council as well as the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) have all expressed support the introduction of the death penalty for these crimes. The committee is now expected to table its report for consideration and final passage as the House reconvenes from its recess. The severity of the problem was brought home two days ago when fifteen nursery and primary school children were abducted in Aba, Abia State.

The incidents of kidnapping and hostage taking started among militants in the Niger Delta as a form protest against unequal distribution of wealth. Today they have evolved into serious crimes and threaten social cohesion. Recently a medical doctor was murdered by his abductors even after his family had paid N30 million ransom money to his kidnappers. Currently, five members of the National Youth Service Corps, (NYSC) serving in Rivers State are in the hands of their captors who have demanded N10 million for their release.

One of the cardinal purposes of law is to prevent the commission of crimes, while another is to stipulate stiff penalties to act as deterrence. The crime of abduction and kidnapping negatively portrays Nigeria as anarchic and lawless, not worth taking the risk to do legitimate business in. It is understandable therefore the urgent need to redeem the situation.

A law such as has been proposed would have received wholesome accolade except that the social indices to back it hardly warrant it. Unemployment is highest among the youths suspected of being the kidnap and hostage kingpins. Our preventive, investigative and trial systems are highly defective leading to constant cases of maladministration of justice and summary or extra-judicial executions.

The death penalty is an irreversible punishment, which is usually applied in cases of heinous crimes; it should be sparingly invoked. In view of the state of the Nigerian it is necessary to sound a note of caution given that even in more mature societies there are documented instances of miscarriages of justice after a thorough judicial process. Although such miscarriage of justice leads to the payment of amends, no monetary restitution can compensate for a life taken even in the course of carrying out a judicial sentence.

A proper alignment of social indices should precede any addition to the list of crimes meriting the application of the death penalty. This is imperative especially in the light of emerging facts indicating that even in states with such penalties it has hardly serve as deterrence. A case in point is that of armed robbery which attracts a similar penalty. The crime has failed to abate and there have been confessions in which criminals wilfully killed others fully conscious of the penalty for their crimes. The first step in addressing the problem is to take measures to redress the imbalance created by unemployment. This should be followed with equipping the security forces with the tools necessary to prevent the commission of crimes and the possible miscarriage of justice. These would go a long way in curbing not just kidnapping and hostage taking but many other crimes in our society.

Daily Trust

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Pope Benedict XVI congratulates Nigeria at 50

Pope Benedict XVI has congratulated President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, the Federal Government and all Nigerians on the occasion of the country's 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations.

A personal congratulatory message from the Pope was delivered to President Jonathan on Thursday, September 30, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, by his special envoy and personal representative, Cardinal Peter Turson.

In the message to the President, Pope Benedict conveyed his "prayerful wishes for the continued well-being, growth and prosperity of Nigeria and its citizens".

Responding, President Jonathan asked Cardinal Turson to convey the appreciation of the Government and people of Nigeria to the Pope.

He said that Nigerian appreciated the Holy Father's prayers and will continue to have good relations with the Vatican.

Also today at the Presidential Villa, President Jonathan received the Chinese Minister of Industry and Information, Mr. Li Yizhong who is representing his country's leader, President Hu Jintao, at the celebrations.

Welcoming Mr. Yizhong and his delegation, President Jonathan expressed the hope that the already cordial relations between Nigerian and China will continue to be developed for the mutual benefit of both countries.

The Minister told President Jonathan that China attaches great importance to its strategic partnership with Nigeria and that President Hu Jintao could not personally honour his invitation to Nigeria's 50th Independence celebrations as he would have wanted because October 1 is also China's National Day.

Nigeria First

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Bestselling author Uwem Akpan on CNN

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Body scanners used as porn by airport security

The Nigerian newspaper This Day has reported that security officials at Lagos airport are getting their jollies by watching female passengers go through a full-body scanner.

Nigerian investigative reporters visited the airport during a slow period when security officials had time to spare. The journalists found some of them hanging around the scanner display. Since the scanner blurs the face in an attempt to give anonymity, the officers were hurrying over to the line to peek at the passengers before going back to the scanner to check out their favorites.

The scanner was installed after the failed attack by underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was from Lagos, yet technicians have revealed a full-body scan wouldn't have caught him. An Israeli security expert who helped plan security at Israel's super-strict Ben Gurion Airport says body scanners don't work. Israeli airports don't use the device.

Many Nigerians feel it is against their religion to expose themselves to a stranger, while others fear the effects of radiation. The investigative journalists witnessed passengers objecting to go through the scanner until security turned off one of the metal detectors, giving them the choice of using the full-body scanner or waiting in a longer line.

Gadling

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The return of Boko Haram

It might be wrong to describe the recent attack of the Boko Haram sect in Bauchi as a surprise. The indications of an attack were all over the place, including the North East, where they had started some skirmishes.

So if anything should be surprising about it, it should be the audacity of the attack. Once again, the violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram struck and at the heart of Bauchi, of all places. They attacked the Bauchiâ-‚Central Prison, where they set free some 721 inmates, many of whom are members of the Islamic sect who have been detained in the prison since last year over a similar crisis.

Armed with weapons including guns and explosives, the group had attacked the prison one evening during the Ramadan fast, and over-powered the warders on duty, and set its members free as well as other inmates who took advantage of their liberty to also escape from the prison. While many were re-arrested days after, others returned on their own volition.

The Islamic sect, which is opposed to western education, had struck July last year and killed several people in Bauchi, Maiduguri and other northern states. In the clamp down that followed, the police had killed several members of the sect, arrested many others including their leader, Mr. Muhammed Yusuf, whom the police later killed whilst in their custody.

Between then and the latest attack, the sect had struck three other times, each time recording heavy casualties, most times of innocent persons.

As in previous editorials on the issue, we condemn the recent attack by the sect. The cause they claim to be fighting is perverse, retrogressive and dictatorial.

In an age where there is increased inclination to learning and technological breakthrough, to raise an army that will fight the process of acquiring such knowledge-be it Western or Eastern--, we believe, is a setback to development. But even if it were right, where is the freedom to learn as enshrined in the constitution of the country? Need the Boko Haram vanguard be reminded that Nigeria remains a secular society?

The resurgence of the Islamic militia is a failure of intelligence in many respects. First, the fact that it has been meeting, re-grouping, and stock- piling arms with which the attack was launched was common knowledge.

Second, the brazenness with which the prison was attacked and subdued portrays the poor combat readiness of the security operatives. It was an operation that lasted for several hours. The counter-response by the police was not only weak, but slow and even tepid. It tells a lot about the capacity of the security organs of the country. And it is worrisome.

The incident also raises the issue of the nation's judicial lethargy. The arrested suspects who have been in detention since July last year, have neither been tried nor freed, more than one year after. The slow grind of judicial process causes loss of confidence in the ability of the courts to deliver justice with dispatch; after all, justice delayed is justice denied.

We believe that the nation's security operatives should see the Boko Haram threat as a call to duty. To think that because its leader had been killed the group is now extinct has proven to be a grave mistake.

The attack on Bauchi prison, more than any incident, indicates that until the sect is completely routed, the North, and indeed the entire nation, will know no respite. That is why we call on the Police and other security agencies to join hands in removing this threat. Those arrested should be made to face speedy trial and face justice, if only to serve as a deterrent to other such groups. The nation must begin to enforce its laws effectively. That is the only way society can preserve and pursue collective order and safety.

This Day

Boko Haram snipers kill three policemen

Video and transcript of Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf interrogated before his execution