Anambra State House of Assembly has amended the state Criminal Code Law, making it an offence punishable by death for any person convicted of kidnapping.
The legislators, at their plenary session on Wednesday, amended sections 315 and 316 of the Criminal Code to stipulate capital punishment for offenders.
Also, the bill will be cited as the Criminal Code (Amendment) Law 2009, and came into force on March 17, 2009, just as it mandates the state chief judge to designate a high court as a special court for the purpose of trying offences under the law.
It will be recalled that the state had recorded over 25 cases of kidnap in the last three years, with victims said to have paid ramsome before they could secure their release.
According to the bill, “Section 315 (1) states that any person who (a) unlawfully imprisons any person and takes him out of Anambra State without his/her consent; or (b) unlawfully imprisons any person within Anambra State in such a manner as to prevent him/her from applying to a court for his release or from disclosing to any other person the place where he is imprisoned, or in such a manner as to prevent any person entitled to have access to him from discovering the place where he is imprisoned, is guilty of a felony and shall be liable upon conviction to life imprisonment without option of fine.
“(2) If any offender mentioned in subsection (1) of this Section (a) is armed with any firearm or any offensive weapon or is in company with any person so armed; (b) or at or immediately before or immediately after the time of the kidnapping or imprisonment uses or threatens to use any personal violence to any person; or (c) makes a demand for payment of a ransom in order to effect the release of the person imprisoned, the offender shall be liable upon conviction to be sentenced to death.”