News Investigators/ A former United Nations Human Rights Envoy, Uchenna Emelonye, has urged the Senate to abandon proposals to introduce the death penalty for kidnapping.
Prof. Emelonye, a lawyer, made the appeal on Tuesday during a press briefing held online.
The professor warned that such a move would not curb the crime but could distract from reforms that would genuinely improve public safety.
Prof. Emelonye addressed his open letter at the briefing to Senate President Godswill Akpabio and lawmakers across the country.
While strongly condemning kidnapping, Prof. Emelonye said that evidence from Nigeria and other jurisdictions showed that harsher penalties did not deter crime where enforcement remained weak.
According to him, he has over two decades of experience advising governments on counter-terrorism, criminal justice reform, and public safety.
“Kidnapping thrives not because penalties are insufficient, but due to poor detection, weak intelligence, low arrest rates, and fragile institutions,” he said.
Prof. Emelonye also shared his personal experience, revealing that his elder brother was once abducted after his police orderly was shot.
He said the trauma families endured underscored the need for effective prevention rather than “symbolic punishments.”
He warned that amending the Terrorism Act to include kidnapping missed the real problem, noting that Nigeria already has several federal and state laws prescribing severe penalties, including the death penalty.
“At least 14 states, including Lagos, Rivers, Oyo, Ogun and Anambra, have anti-kidnapping laws that impose the death penalty in aggravated cases.
“The persistence of the crime shows that enforcement, not legislation, is the major challenge.
“Kidnapping is constitutionally a state crime, and federalising it through the Terrorism Act could disrupt state prosecution systems, overload the Federal High Court and trigger constitutional challenges.
“Nigeria’s experience with capital punishment for crimes such as armed robbery and murder has not reduced violence.
“About 3,504 inmates are currently on death row, yet fewer than 15 executions have taken place in nearly two decades,” he said.
Emelonye identified weak policing, poor intelligence coordination, limited forensic capacity, porous borders and the proliferation of illegal arms as key drivers of kidnapping.
The professor said that the certainty of arrest, rather than the severity of punishment, deterred crime, adding that low arrest and conviction rates had rendered existing penalties ineffective.
He recommended a targeted and time-bound state of emergency under Section 305 of the Constitution, alongside institutional reforms, intelligence-led policing and the establishment of a national kidnapping prevention and response framework.
The human rights lawyer also urged the Senate to prioritise institutional strengthening over punitive expansion in tackling insecurity.
NAN
