The Federal
Executive Council (FEC), yesterday approved a draft bill presented to
Council by the Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke
for onward presentation to the legislators.
According to the
Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, who briefed State House
correspondents after the meeting, the Bill, Trafficking in Persons
Prohibition, Enforcement and Administration Bill, 2012 provides stiffer
penalty for offenders.
He explained
further, "the existing legal framework for addressing the subject matter
which is the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition), Law Enforcement and
Administration Act, 2003 (as amended), is fraught with deficiencies and
grossly inadequate to effectively combat the scourge of human
trafficking in Nigeria.
"Several provisions
in the existing law are not consistent with the requirements of the
Trafficking in persons Protocol, Supplementing the United Nations
Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, (Palermo Convention)
2000.
"The principal
objective of the current Bill is to repeal and cure the defects in the
existing law and reposition the National Agency for the Prohibition of
Trafficking in Persons for effective delivery on its mandate and provide
fora more comprehensive legal and institutional framework for the
prohibition, prevention, detection, prosecution and punishment of human
trafficking offences in Nigeria".
The Council also
received a report of the committee headed by the Minister of Land and
Housing, Ms Ama Pepple on the Navy building that collapsed last year in
Gwarimpa, Abuja.
After deliberation,
Council approved that contractor that handled the project be banned from
handling federal government projects while the naval officers that
supervised the building should be disciplined accordingly.
COMPASS
No comments:
Post a Comment