Nigerian Senate Passes Bill Prescribing Life Imprisonment For Kidnappers

The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday raised the punishment for anyone found guilty on the offence of kidnapping from 10 years to life imprisonment.

The bill tagged ‘The Criminal Code Act (Amendment) Bill, 2020’ sponsored by Oluremi Tinubu (APC, Lagos Central), contains amendments to the criminal code, which is currently in operation in the Southern part of Nigeria.

It seeks to delete the statute of limitation on defilement, increase punishment for the offence of kidnapping and remove gender restrictions in the offence of rape and other related matters.

Also, the bill as amended and passed by the Senate has now approved deletion of the limitation period for the prosecution of defilement.

It now holds that anyone, who commits rape can be prosecuted any time the matter is filed.

It also removed gender restrictions on the offence of rape by explaining that both male and female could be raped.

If the Bill becomes law, defilement cases can be actionable at any time

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