Nigerian kidnappers to get life

Kidnapping can be big business for militants and "cult" groups
Kidnappers in one of Nigeria's oil-producing southern states will now face life in prison.

The Rivers State government has passed a law fixing life terms in jail for those found guilty. Previously judges could use their discretion.

Kidnapping has been on the increase in recent months in Nigeria's restive Niger Delta, prompting the governor to announce harsh new penalties.

But critics say that kidnap gangs are hardly ever caught, let alone tried.

Militants demanding a bigger share of Nigeria's oil wealth began kidnapping expatriate oil workers in 2006.

Street gangs, known as "cults", made up of jobless, armed youths, also joined in what is a lucrative enterprise.

Although oil companies deny paying ransoms, it is believed captives are freed after some kind of transaction.

Correspondents say most expatriate workers have left Port Harcourt and now anyone who is suspected of having money is targeted.

'Death penalty'

There have been several high profile kidnappings this year, including a Catholic priest from the steps of his church after mass and the seizure of a nine-year-old boy whose 11-year-old sister was shot dead trying to protect him. Isn't life in a jail here really a death sentence?

Ogbonna Nwuke
Rivers State governor spokesman


Girl shot dead in Nigerian Delta

Following these cases, Governor Rotimi Amaechi had called for the death penalty to be applied for convicted kidnappers.

His aides said the life sentence agreed by the state government was not a compromise.

"After all, isn't life in a jail here really a death sentence?" spokesman Ogbonna Nwuke told the BBC News website.

"Now we have sent a message to the kidnappers by setting this sentence, it is up to the rest of the country to get together and work out a way of ending this problem in the Niger Delta," he said.

'Publicity stunt'

But human rights activists say they are suspicious of the Rivers State government's actions.

They say the new measures are not much more than empty talk.

"When do they ever catch anyone for kidnapping?" said Patrick Naagbanton, of the Centre for Environment Human Rights and Development.

"These gangs have political connections, they are protected," he told the BBC.

He said innocent people would bear the brunt of any police crackdown.

Human rights lawyer Anyakwee Nsirimovu told the BBC the action was a "frivolous publicity stunt".

"How can anyone believe legislation is the way to sort out this problem when the police lack the capacity to intervene, or investigate cases?"

A police spokeswoman in Rivers State said she did not have figures for how many successful kidnapping prosecutions had been brought in the last year.

There have been 14 kidnappings in the state since January, she told the BBC.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7897317.stm