Nigeria’s First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, has urged state governors to implement capital punishment for criminals involved in the abduction of children across the nation.
Mrs Tinubu stated this in her address marking the International Women’s Day on Friday,8th March 2024 in Abuja..
Apparently worried by the spate of kidnapping and the dire impact on the victims and families,the first lady believed that the kidnappers deserved a more punitive punishment- the death penalty. She said “Whoever is kidnapping children is sick, cruel, and a coward. Enough is enough. I call on state governors that once we apprehend them, they deserve capital punishment. Why don’t they confront individuals of their own strength? Why do they target our children? Their actions jeopardize our future. As parents, we invest in our children, envisioning them as our support in old age, particularly when they succeed.”
The wife of the president emphasized that those involved in child abduction deserve capital punishment even as she queried the motives behind targeting children in schools,
, “Why would you take them from schools? Why? I firmly believe that any one of them apprehended deserves capital punishment. I say this, and I believe most mothers share this sentiment.”
Mrs Tinubu’s advocacy for Capital punishment for kidnappers of children stems from incidents such as Thursday’s abduction of 287 pupils and students of LEA primary and secondary schools in Chikun local government area of Kaduna state. Before that, there was the Chibok Girls Secondary school in April 2014 ,where over 200 students were abducted by Boko Haram insurgents. A few of the students escaped while some died and the rest were married off to insurgents. There was also the Dapchi school abduction in Yobe state where Leah Sharibu,a Christian girl and one of the abductees is still in captivity years after all students in her school were set free.
. Also, there was the abduction of 20 students of Greenfield University ,a private institution in Kaduna on April 20,2021 . Five of the students and a male warder were killed by the bandits .
Bandits also attacked the Federal Government College,Birnin Yauri in Kebbi state in 2021and abducted over 90 student and a few staff. It was reported that some of the school girls were married off by the insurgents.
The Bethel Baptist College in Kaduna and the Government Secondary school Kagara in Niger State are also incidents of abduction that might have triggered the first lady’s call for Capital punishment for abductors.
