 |
| Evans |
There is a strong possibility that the notorious, recently arrested Nigerian kidnapper, better known as Evans, may get the death sentence. This comes after the Nigerian Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, signed into law the Kidnapping Prohibition Bill, only after Evans had been arrested. The bill had been passed by the Lagos State House of Assembly in January of this year but was not signed by the governor until after the Evans’ arrest.
The Kidnapping Prohibition Bill supports life imprisonment for kidnapping, but supports the death sentence, in situations where the victim dies in the hands of his kidnappers.
Following his arrest, Evans confessed that he had been an importer, but relocated to South Africa after his imported goods, worth twenty-five million Naira, were seized by the Nigerian Customs. In South Africa, he got involved in hard drug trafficking. He later returned to Nigeria to join kidnapping, accepting only U.S Dollars, British Pounds and Euros as ransom.
In a recent news publication in the Nigerian Vanguard of June 24th, a Divisional Police Officer in charge of a division of Lagos revealed that, when he saw pictures of Evans in the media, he recalled that his command had once arrested him in Lagos. It was sometime in 2006 and had to do with armed-robbery. Three banks, located in an international market in Lagos, were involved. With that arrest, a policewoman, attached to the band unit of the Lagos Police College, requested Evans to be released, because he was related to her. When the command declined to grant her request, she travelled to a Nigerian southeastern state. The police command in that state subsequently sent a request for Evans to be handed over to it for being in its list of wanted criminals. Evans was handed over to it. The Lagos police command later learned that he had been released.
It is a fact that, in the long period of Evans’ involvement with violent crimes, many Nigerians, including scores of police officers, had died. It is the reason why, legal pundits strongly believe that this time, Evans had finally met his Waterloo and wouldn’t escape the death sentence.
