Following concerns expressed by Amnesty International over his decision to push for capital punishment for kidnappers, Rivers State governor, Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has again adduced reasons why kidnappers should be made to pay the ultimate price.
Amaechi, who spoke at the weekend in a meeting with top officials of Amnesty International at the body’s international secretariat in London, expressed conviction in his decision, maintaining that there was need to apply punitive measures to arrest the trend.
The human rights body, led by its deputy director, Africa Programme, Tawanda Hondora, expressed concern over the governor’s decision to push for capital punishment for kidnappers in Rivers State, but Amaechi was emphatic in his stance.
His words: “I appreciate your concerns, but what you don’t know is that we are faced with a very unusual and peculiar criminality that kidnapping in the Niger Delta has become. Strong punitive measures must be put in place to stop these criminals from kidnapping. And the law must be enforced when these crimes are committed. The other day a little girl was killed as the kidnappers made away with her brother.
“Armed robbery is when you take away material things from someone with the use of force. And what is kidnapping? Using force to take away human beings. So, why should the punishment for armed robbery be death and the other is not?”
The governor, who was accompanied by his media consultant and key adviser, Mr. David Iyofor, allayed the fears of the organisation that the kidnappers might decide to kill their victims if they knew that they would get death sentence for kidnapping.
He said, “The criminals are in the business for the money. If they kill their victims, how will they get the money? They need their victims to be alive so that they can collect huge ransom money. And don’t forget that this thing has become one massive operation, with a lot of money spent in kidnapping and keeping a victim, and they will need to make money from the victim by way of ransom. And they can’t get that if they kill their victims”
Amaechi, who also spoke on the demolitions going on in Port Harcourt and the proposed development of waterfronts and the fate of its present inhabitants, made it abundantly clear that the state government was only demolishing illegal structures that violate the Port Harcourt master plan, in accordance with the laws of the state, and that it was fences of buildings that were mostly affected.
On waterfronts, he noted that the state government would value and pay compensation for properties of the present inhabitants in order for them to relocate to other parts of the state before development of the waterfronts commences.
“We understand that they are poor and may not be able to afford another accommodation; that is why we are putting all these measures in place. And Amnesty International is free to come to Rivers State at any time to assess the situation. It is even better to visit and see than rely on information that seems to be usually inaccurate or, at best, exaggerated”, Amaechi concluded.