The Senate has passed the Bill for an Act on the Prohibition and Protection of persons from Lynching, Mob action and extrajudicial executions and other related offences in Nigeria.
Presenting the report at the plenary session of Thursday, 28 September 2017, Vice Chairman of the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Sen. Chukwuka Utazi (PDP: Enugu) informed the Senate that the Committee adopted a legislative framework allowing for the conduct of a public hearing to avail members of the public with an opportunity to make contributions on the proposed legislation.
Sen. Utazi summarized the objectives of the Bill as being to:
- Discourage the use of jungle justice or extrajudicial process to handle criminal matters and to ensure perpetrators of such crimes are punished;
- Criminalize any act that would deprive any individual his/her right to life through crowd lynching, mob actions or riotous assemblage; and
- Criminalize any act of security agent(s) who fail to prevent or protect citizens and non-citizens from crowd lynching, mob actions or extrajudicial killing.
In addition, he stated that the Committee had taken into consideration, the contributions of Senators during the deliberations on the Bill and submissions from various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) such as the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), and other relevant stakeholders, where it observed that:
- The views expressed by stakeholders and members of the public were in support of the Bill;
- The Bill, if enacted, will complement provisions of the penal and criminal codes that had no specific provision to address issues of jungle justice and extrajudicial killing in Nigeria;
- The Bill, if enacted, will make security agencies perform their core mandate of protecting lives and properties of citizens; and
- The Bill, if enacted, will address the unfortunate incidences of jungle justice.
Sen. Utazi noted that the Committee had amended 4 Clauses in the Bill before recommending the Senate’s approval of the report.
Click here to view the amendments and full report of the Committee
