Senate Passes Anti- Terrorism Bill

The Nigerian Senate yesterday passed the Anti-Terrorism Bill 2011, after considering the bill clause by clause in a committee of a whole.

President Goodluck Jonathan  had on Wednesday in a letter to the Senate appealed for the quick passage of the Bill and the Money Laundering Bill respectively in compliance with the best practices around the world.

Presenting the report of the committee on Security and Intelligence, the Chairman ,  Sen. Nuhu Aliyu, who presided over the Senate joint committees on Security and Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters said the fight against terrorism had today become a global fight and Nigeria as a member of the international community seeks to play an important role.

Sen. Aliyu said since the event of the Sept. 11 in the U.S “various countries  the world over had put measures in place to check the activities of terrorists, especially with the passage of the Security Resolution 1373.

He, however, noted that the first attempt to pass the Terrorist Bill Act was  in 2005 but could not scale the second reading because it was the thinking of the Senate then, that the objective conditions for having an anti-terrorist Act “were not extant in Nigeria.’’

He pointed out that  to meet the global practice on this very important issue, some senators sponsored a bill entitled “National Security Enhancement Bill 2008 later harmonised with the executive version sent to the Senate on September13, 2009.

The Bill, the chairman explained soughts to provide legal framework for the prevention, prohibition and combating acts of terrorism in Nigeria and also soughts to prescribe penalties for violating any of its provisions.

He argued that the passed Bill “will certainly provide a useful instrument for combating the growing threat of terrorism in Nigeria.’’

According to him “many of the organised crimes such as oil bunkering, hostage taking and kidnappings will attract stiff penalties under the bill.’’

After the passage of the bill,  Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu who presided over the plenary sitting thanked the senators for the commitment and contributions during the clause by clause consideration, saying that the passage of the bill would now provide the needed legal framework for the operation of the anti-terrorism bill which would expectedly now place Nigeria as a nation which had complied with the best practice in the world.

Nneka Amaechi- Nnadi, Abuja