Cultists To Face Death Penalty In Ekiti
Ekiti State House of Assembly on Tuesday, passed a law prescribing the death penalty for anybody found guilty of engaging in cultism in the state.
The Assembly also upwardly revised the punishments for those aiding and abetting such activities .
At its plenary on the floor of the Assembly Chamber in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, on Tuesday, the House also passed the 2017 Revised Appropriation bill into law.
The Secret Cult (Abolition and Prohibition Amendment) Bill, 2017, was introduced by the House Leader of Business, Hon. Akinyele Olatunji, who called the attention of the lawmakers to the incessant killing of students by cultists at the higher institutions in the state, citing the recent occurrence at the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti (EKSU).
Olatunji, who stated that no group will be allowed to disrupt the relative peace in the state commended the peace-loving governor who urgently forwarded the bill to the House.
The original bill, said to have been promulgated during the first term of Governor Ayodele Fayose, was amended from the previous seven-year imprisonment for convicted cultist to death penalty, while the punishment for people who aid or abet the crime rose from five-years imprisonment to life imprisonment.
Speaker of the House, Right Hon. (Pastor) Kola Oluwawole, said “we cannot fold our arms while some people would constitute themselves as menace by wasting the lives of innocent people of this state.
“It is an everlasting sorrow for someone to lose his child or relative. The bill will reshape the lives of our youths. It will touch those who intend to join any secret cults and those who have the intention to take another person’s life.
“Those people that we are representing will have peace of mind that their lives and those of their children are safe. The bill considers very seriously, the negative consequences of such action because of the irreparable loss of lives.”
The deputy speaker, Right Hon. Olusegun Adewumi; Hon. Titilayo Akerele, Hon. Sina Animasaun, Hon. Dayo Akinleye, Hon. Cecilia Dada and Hon. (Dr) Samuel Omotoso, who took turns to speak on the bill condemned the activities of the cultists while supporting the bill as well as the House’s decision for its express passage.
Hon. Afolabi Akanni from Efon, particularly called the attention of members of the House to the activities of “Yahoo and 419 guys” who he said wanted to turn Ekiti State to their safe haven, urging security agencies to be awake to their duties over the menace.