Governor Abubakar Sani-Bello of Niger State on Friday assented a bill that recommended a 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 in the wake of a 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 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.
