Senate criminalises ransom payment to kidnappers

The Senate yesterday passed a bill to amend the Terrorism (Prevention) Act 2013 and prohibit payment of ransom to kidnappers.

The bill was passed following the consideration of a report by the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, chaired by Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti).

Bamidele, in his presentation, said the bill sought to outlaw the payment of ransom to abductors, kidnappers and terrorists for release of any person wrongfully confined, imprisoned or kidnapped.

He said: “The overall import of this bill is to discourage the rising spate of kidnapping and abduction for ransom in Nigeria, which is fast spreading across the country.”

He assured that the amendment to the Terrorism Act would set standards and regulatory system intended to prevent terrorist groups from laundering money through the banking system and other financial networks.

He added: “Having policies in place to combat financing of terrorism will surely reduce or eliminate privacy and anonymity in financial and other sundry transactions as it relates to the subject in our society.”

He said the need to comprehensively review the Terrorism Prevention Act arose from the unfavorable ratings of Financial Act Task Force (FATF) recommendations of Nigeria’s Mutual Evaluation Report and consequent placement of Nigeria in FATF’S International Cooperation and Review Group Process with its impending sanctions on Nigeria’s economy.

He said the National Task Force on improving Nigeria’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/ CFT) regime in Nigeria, proposed improvement on the Act in order to address the deficiencies noted in its provisions so as to align with the required standard as obtainable in other jurisdictions.

He stressed that the proposed repeal and enactment bill was geared towards improving the effectiveness of countermeasures against terrorism, terrorism financing and proliferation financing. He said the repeal was aimed at providing adequate framework for improved international collaboration, interagency cooperation and freezing of terrorist funds/assets.

Bamidele said the passage of the bill would save Nigeria from being included among countries in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Grey List with its attendant negative consequences, which might ultimately result to international sanctions that would affect the image of the country in the comity of nations.