Senate okays death penalty for terrorists!!

 The Senate yesterday passed the amended version of the Terrorism Act, 2011, which prescribes death penalty for acts of terror in the country.

The bill also provides for life imprisonment where terrorism is committed and an imprisonment for a term not less than 20 years where the offence is not committed but the person aids, abets, induces, incites, instigates and instructs.

The bill, which is an adaptation of the report of the conference committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives, was adopted by the upper chamber.

The Senate had in its original bill passed on October 17 last year prescribed life imprisonment for offenders but had to revert to the House’s version, which provided for capital punishment.

The House has already adopted the conference committee report after which the bill will be forwarded to the President for assent.

The new bill also empowers security agencies to eavesdrop on private calls of suspected terrorists to obtain useful information to avert the attacks.

It, however, provides that such interjection must be authorised by a high court judge through an ex parte application for an “interception of communication order.”

Specifically, the bill provides: “Without prejudice to any other law, the relevant law enforcement agency, with the approval of the Attorney-General of the Federation, may, for the purpose of the prevention of terrorist acts or to enhance the detection of offences related to the preparation of a terrorist act or the prosecution of offenders under this act, apply ex parte to a judge for an interception of communication order.”

Also, the new bill designates the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, as the national coordinating body for all security and enforcement agencies involved in handling cases of terrorism.

The national coordinating body is also to provide support to all relevant security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies as well as military services to prevent and combat acts of terrorism in Nigeria.

The ONSA is to ensure the effective formulation and implementation of a comprehensive counterterrorism strategy for the country and build capacity for the effective discharge of the functions of relevant security, intelligence, law enforcement and military services.

While the new bill vests in the AGF the authority for the effective implementation and administration of the acts, it vests in the law enforcement and security agencies the responsibilities for the gathering of intelligence and investigation of offences provided for in the bill.

It, however, removes the power to apply for the forfeiture of any funds or property belonging to any terrorist from the NSA, the IGP and the President and vests same on any law enforcement agency.

The forfeiture order must not only be gazetted but published in at least two national newspapers.

The bill also provides that the notice of the forfeiture order must be served on banks, financial institutions and cash dealers or any other person who may hold or be vested with property belonging to or held on behalf of any suspect.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government yesterday said it would collaborate with Cameroonian security agents and other international allies to track down the kidnappers of a French family of seven abducted in northern Cameroon on Tuesday.

Fielding questions from journalists while receiving members of the Nigeria Football Federation NFF, in Abuja, the Inspector- General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, said he was in touch with Cameroonian diplomats in Nigeria and that both countries would cooperate to rescue the abducted foreign nationals.

“The French president did not accuse Nigeria. What I do know is that some persons were kidnapped in Cameroon. I am in touch with the Cameroonian ambassador here in Nigeria. So, we are working jointly to arrest the people. “However, you will not expect us to discuss the details of such issues on the pages of newspapers,” he said.

French President Francois Hollande had accused Islamist militants of the Boko Haram sect of abducting members of the French family including four children.

The risk of attacks on French nationals and interests in Africa has risen since France sent forces into Mali last month to help oust Islamist rebels occupying the country’s north.

“They (French family) have been taken by a terrorist group that we know and that is in Nigeria.

“I see the hand of Boko Haram in that part of Cameroon. France is in Mali, and it will continue until its mission is completed,” Hollande told reporters during his visit to Greece on Tuesday.

A Cameroonian minister said yesterday that the Boko Haram sect members believed to have abducted a French family of seven, including four children, in Cameroon had taken them to Nigeria.

Speaking on French television, Joseph Dion Ngute, a junior minister at the foreign ministry, said the kidnappers had put the hostages on motorcycles after their car broke down.

“They then took another woman hostage with her car and fled into Nigeria,” he said. “Our forces and the Nigerian forces were alerted, but before they reacted the kidnappers had vanished.”

It was not clear what had happened to the additional female hostage.

Security in the Dabanga area, 10 km (six miles) from the Nigerian border, where they were taken has been reinforced and “urgent measures” to locate the family put in place, he said.

The father of the family, which included four children aged between five and 12, worked for utility firm GDF Suez.

French television reported the father was from a family of winemakers in the Burgundy region. Joint Task Force, JTF, spokesman, Col. Sagir Musa, said: “The armed forces were on alert … ready to apprehend any criminal elements or terrorists that come into our areas.”

He gave no further details.

Cameroon state television said a French military unit had arrived in the country to help in the rescue efforts, but a French defence ministry spokesman said the report was “baseless”.

“Based on long-standing and political and socio-economic ties between France and Cameroon, it is expected that French forces will engage in resolving this issue from within Cameroonian borders, with the support of the Cameroon government,” said Nadia Ahidjo of Africapractice, an Africa-focused consulting firm.

Also, France has urged its citizens to leave north Cameroon “as quickly as possible” following the kidnapping.

However, spokesperson of State Security Service, SSS, Marilyn Ogar, said it would be too premature to comment on the incident, stressing that the SSS would rather hold on to its traditional mode of secret policing.

“It is too premature to begin to talk about our efforts on tracking down the suspects. That could jeopardise ongoing investigations,” Ogar said.

The Nigerian Immigration Services, NIS, in collaboration with the Inspector- General of Police and the commander of the Joint Task Force, JTF, in the North-East have been alerted on the abduction, NIS Acting Comptroller- General, Alhaji Rilwanu Bala Musa, said.

The comptroller-general, who was in Maiduguri, yesterday said the familarisation tour of immigration formations and facilities in the North-East was to know the logistical requirements of the staff on ground, so that the country’s borders would be properly secured against illegal aliens and suspected terrorists that could easily infiltrate and perpetrate their heinous activities.

Musa said: “Borno State has the highest number of three bordering countries of Niger, Chad and Cameroon, which illegal aliens could use and infiltrate to perpetrate terrorists activities, like torching of border posts, kidnappings and abduction of people as has recently occurred at Wazza in Cameroon near Banki and Kirawa towns in Borno State.”

He said the border areas should be secured against infiltration of aliens and other terrorist activities at the borders of Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin Republic in the South-West.

Musa said that officers and men of NIS in the hinterlands would be withdrawn and sent to the Mobile Police Training Camp, MPTC, Gwoza, for training.

He said the trained officers would be posted to border posts of the four affected neighbouring countries.

The NIS boss added that motorcycles, helmets and life jackets would be distributed to the officers at the borders posts of Banki, Gambouru, Kirawa, Dabar- Masara, Damasak and Baga to enable them to intensify patrol activities in the border areas of Borno State.

In a related development, the apex Northern socio-political organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, has said that unless government takes urgent steps to stem the violent killings and kidnapping of foreigners in the North, the rest of the world may stop doing business with Nigeria.

ACF in a communiqué issued at the end of its National Working Committee, NWC, meeting held in Kaduna on Tuesday condemned the recent killings and kidnapping of seven foreigners in Bauchi as well as the attack on the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, noting that such brutal activities were alien to the North.

The communiqué, signed by the forum’s National Publicity secretary, Mr. Anthony Sani reads: “ACF viewed with serious sense of concern and sadness the recent attacks on the convoy of the Emir of Kano and the killings and kidnapping of some foreigners in some part of the North.

“Those who derive pleasure in killing other people should lay down their arms and embrace peaceful means of addressing perceived grievances, lest the whole world decides not to do business with Nigeria as a result of the emerging violent culture that had hitherto been alien to the North.

“The meeting also considered the controversies surrounding the recruitment exercises and promotions in some security agencies as they affect northerners and called on governors of the 19 northern states to use their commissioners in the Federal Character Commission to investigate the allegations with a view to ensuring that the North was not shortchanged.”