- Nigeria’s oil rich Delta State has enacted the Death Sentence Bill for kidnappers caught with arms and a life imprisonment for unarmed kidnapers.
The Niger delta has been plagued by insurgency, a string of kidnappings and vandalism on oil establishments by indigenous groups around the region claiming to be fighting for the fairer share of the oil proceed in the region.
The Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan had described kidnappers, pipeline vandals and illegal oil bunkerers as criminals and said should be treated as such when brought to justice.
Oil union Organisations in the Delta state, have welcomed the new act saying it was a positive step towards protecting the oil workers in the troubled state.
Earlier this year, oil workers Unions who had accused the government of turning a blind eye to the worrying security situation in the region, threatened to go on strike accusing the Nigerian government of failing to protect oil workers in the region.
The unions also threatened to pull out its members out of the Niger Delta following an upsurge in kidnappings of oil workers, but delayed taking action in view of the importance of the industry to the country's economy.
Nigeria gets almost 90 percent of its earning from crude.
Armed attacks and kidnappings and hijackings of vessels in the Niger Delta, which is home to Nigeria's oil industry, have cut the African nation's exports more than 20 percent since 2006.
According to official reports a number of militant groups in the region claiming to be fighting for a fairer share of the region's oil wealth for local people, have resorted to abductions and are out to make money through ransom demands.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, the main armed group in the region, says it's fighting for the region's poor and has distanced itself from armed groups engaged in kidnappings for ransom.
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