THE Senate has passed a Bill that upgrades the maximum sentence of life imprisonment to death penalty for manufacturers of hard drugs.
The resolution, which was by voice vote, saw the ‘National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act (Amendment Bill) 2024,’ which seeks to review penalties provision, update the list of dangerous drugs, strengthen the operations of the NDLEA and empower the NDLEA to establish laboratories, scale through the Third Reading on Thursday .
Section 11 of the current Act prescribes that any person who, without lawful authority, imports, manufactures, produces, processes, plants or grows the drugs, popularly known as cocaine, LSD, heroin or any other similar drugs, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to be sentenced to imprisonment for life was amended to reflect a stiffer death penalty.
The Bill was passed after the Senate considered the report of the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, presented by Mongonu Tahir, representing Borno North.
Though the report did not recommend death penalty, but the Senate Chief Whip, Ali Ndume, moved that the penalty of life sentence be replaced with death.
During a clause-by-clause consideration of Bill, Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, who presided over the session, put the amendment on the death penalty to a voice vote, and declared that the “ayes” had it.
However, Adams Oshiomhole, representing Edo North, objected that the “nays” had it rather, arguing that matters of life and death should not be treated hurriedly.
But Jibrin said it was too late, as he failed to raise a point of division soon enough. The Bill was subsequently passed.
Speaking to journalists on the implication of the Bill,
Munguno, who chairs the Committee on Human Rights and Legal Matters, said the import of the amendment of the NDLEA Act prescribed the punishment of death sentence for those who engage in the manufacturing or processing of hard drugs.
“But for the people that engage in the consumption of these hard drugs, the sentence prescribed is 15 years.
“I think the senate, in its wisdom, decided to prescribe death sentence in view of the havoc being created by substance and drug abuse in this country, which if not nipped in the bud, have the potential of destroying the future of this country, because it is the majority of the youth that are engaged in the drug and substance abuse, sometimes innocently as a result of peer group influence.
“The sentence is 15 years without the option of fine.”
