BY Nwakanma Owhondah The proposed amendment bill of the Anti Cultism and Kidnapping Law, which proposes death penalty has attracted un...
BY Nwakanma Owhondah
The proposed amendment bill of the Anti Cultism and Kidnapping Law, which proposes death penalty has attracted unfavourable reactions from several quarter of the state. The CSOs in the state have not been leftout with this reaction.
In a press conference held on Monday 29th January 2018, a group under the auspices of Joint Civil Society Organization (CSOs) indicated clearly that, the two Executive Bill, which are Rivers State Anti-kidnapping Law, and Anti- Cultism Law that the proposes death sentence upon conviction to replaced 21years imprisonment upon conviction is faulty.
The group said
"As a civil society organization whose primary assignment is to guard to and educate the public, our concern with the passage of the proposed amendment bill is that their is an emerging consensus that the death penalty is barbaric and hardly achieved the intended result of discouraging or dis-incentivizing criminality ".
The group in a press briefing by the its leader, Prince Ekpene said:
"We understand that the alarming rise of kidnapping in the state requires dire measure, but those dire measure should consist in improving security and information gathering as well as crest a greater employment opportunities for the citizens of the state ".
They maintained that their is a direct link between the unemployment rate in Rivers state (which is the highest in the countryside according to the National Bureau of statistics), and the rise to insecurity including kidnapping.
On his own part, Ken Hensher said
"The government should not legislate on every thing, if cultist and kidnappers should go for death sentence, what of corrupt public official and politicians?".
He also said "the judicial system and the law enforcement agencies should stop monitazing criminality, in the name of fine. so that money will stopped been a subtitled for crimes
Ken used futher urges the government of the state to concentrate more on job creation. Noting that the statistics realised in the last quarter of 2017 by the National Bureau puts Rivers state 47.8% rate of unemployment.
Finally, he said "the proposed amendment bill seems cast a wide blanket net which could be abused to indict persons who are not directly guilty, and revocation of title document in respect of that property and transfer the ownership the title document to the state could be used for political reasons "
The proposed amendment bill of the Anti Cultism and Kidnapping Law, which proposes death penalty has attracted unfavourable reactions from several quarter of the state. The CSOs in the state have not been leftout with this reaction.
In a press conference held on Monday 29th January 2018, a group under the auspices of Joint Civil Society Organization (CSOs) indicated clearly that, the two Executive Bill, which are Rivers State Anti-kidnapping Law, and Anti- Cultism Law that the proposes death sentence upon conviction to replaced 21years imprisonment upon conviction is faulty.
The group said
"As a civil society organization whose primary assignment is to guard to and educate the public, our concern with the passage of the proposed amendment bill is that their is an emerging consensus that the death penalty is barbaric and hardly achieved the intended result of discouraging or dis-incentivizing criminality ".
The group in a press briefing by the its leader, Prince Ekpene said:
"We understand that the alarming rise of kidnapping in the state requires dire measure, but those dire measure should consist in improving security and information gathering as well as crest a greater employment opportunities for the citizens of the state ".
They maintained that their is a direct link between the unemployment rate in Rivers state (which is the highest in the countryside according to the National Bureau of statistics), and the rise to insecurity including kidnapping.
On his own part, Ken Hensher said
"The government should not legislate on every thing, if cultist and kidnappers should go for death sentence, what of corrupt public official and politicians?".
He also said "the judicial system and the law enforcement agencies should stop monitazing criminality, in the name of fine. so that money will stopped been a subtitled for crimes
Ken used futher urges the government of the state to concentrate more on job creation. Noting that the statistics realised in the last quarter of 2017 by the National Bureau puts Rivers state 47.8% rate of unemployment.
Finally, he said "the proposed amendment bill seems cast a wide blanket net which could be abused to indict persons who are not directly guilty, and revocation of title document in respect of that property and transfer the ownership the title document to the state could be used for political reasons "
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