Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, has signed into law a bill that prescribes death penalty for convicted kidnappers in the State.
The anti-kidnapping bill was one of 10 bills the governor signed into law at the State Executive Chambers witnessed by the Speaker and members of the state House of Assembly, the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) in the State, Ntufam John Okon, the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs. Tina Agbor and Permanent Secretaries.
The law also empowers the State to seize assets as well as freeze accounts belonging to convicted kidnappers, those who aid and abet kidnapping in the State. The governor while speaking on another bill which he had signed into law, described it as holding emotional significance to him.
“The most emotional bill to me is the Social Housing Law which seeks to provide housing for the poorest of the poor in the State. Various researches have linked corruption in Civil Service to housing. It has also been proven that given the salaries of average civil servants, if they do not originate memos that give them extra money, if they do not compromise, there is no civil servant in Nigeria that will be able to build a house. So by virtue of our salary structure, you have already created a catalyst for corruption to thrive,” he stated.
“By this bill, housing in Cross River State is now a right to the citizenry, it may not be justifiable at this point in time but we have created a legal stimulus to drive the structure that we can achieve housing for everybody and in the process, stamp out all mud and thatch houses in Cross River State,” he further stressed.
As a measure aimed at generating revenue to the state from its abundant water resources despite being pronounced a non-littoral state by the Supreme Court following the loss of Bakassi Peninsula, the governor signed the Water Landing and Fee Charges bill into law.
“When the Supreme Court ruling said that Cross River State is hemmed in, and by implication we ceased to be a littoral state, we are today demonstrating with a simple law that, that ruling was wrong since the implication of the ruling is that whatever waterways that exist within the confines of the State is internal and therefore cannot be covered under the Inland Waterways of Nigeria. So we have the right to regulate it,” he said
According to him “we are going to place a maximum figure on any vessel coming into Cross River waterways. So when it becomes an affront to the Federal Government they will revisit the ruling.”
Other laws signed into law by the governor included Infrastructure Safety and Regulatory Law, Water Front Management and Development Law, Corporate Social Responsibility Agency Law and Tax Exemption Law for low income earners.
Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon John Gaul Lebo who described the legislature as the incubator of leadership said the bills would better the lot of Cross Riverians.
He said it was quite impressive that in just three months the House was able to turn in10 bills, adding that the development was an indication that the vision of the governor was so clear that the House was able to translate it into laws.
Hon. Lebo promised the collaboration of the legislature with the executive to ensure the success of the PDP- led government in the state.
