Nigerian Senate outlaws ransom payment to kidnappers
The Nigerian Senate has passed the Terrorism (Prevention) Act of 2013 and outlawing ransom payments to kidnappers in the country.
The senators passed the bill on Wednesday, after the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights, and Legal Matters adopted its report at plenary.
The Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Opeyemi Bamidele, said the bill sought to prohibit the payment of ransom to abductors, kidnappers, and terrorists in exchange for the release of anyone who had been wrongly detained, imprisoned, or kidnapped.
He said that the bill’s ultimate goal was to deter Nigeria’s growing scourge of kidnapping and abduction for ransom cases, which was rapidly spreading across the country.
Bamidele explained that the amended bill would establish standards and a regulatory structure to prevent terrorist organisations from laundering money through banks and other financial networks.
The senator added that putting regulations in place to combat terrorism financing would certainly limit or destroy privacy and anonymity in financial and other activities involving the issue in society.
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan said that the bill would compliment the Federal Government’s efforts in the fight against insecurity when signed into law by the President.
“It is our belief here in the Senate, that this bill, by the time it is signed into an Act by Mr President, will enhance the efforts of this government in the fight against terrorism, kidnapping, and other associated and related vices.
“This is one piece of legislation that can turn around not only the security situation in Nigeria but even the economic fortunes of our country.
“We have done so much as a government in terms of infrastructural development across all parts of this country but because the security situation is not the kind of situation that we all want, this tends to overshadow all the tremendous and massive developments in our country.
“It is our belief that the Executive will waste no time in signing this bill into law,” Lawan said.
