Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau state has signed the anti-land grabbing, kidnapping and cultism bill recently passed by the House of Assembly into law.
Assenting to the bill on Thursday in Jos, Lalong said it would address unlawful land-grabbing, the rising spate of kidnapping, cultism and other violent crimes in the state.
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“The anti-kidnapping, anti-land grabbing, cultism and other violence related matters law is due because of the increase in kidnapping and other violent crimes in the state.
“As a responsible government, we cannot fold our arms and watch our people terrorised by criminals, who are clearly out to cause mayhem.
“This law will deal with anyone caught in the act and I urge security agencies to be on their toes and ensure that culprits are apprehended and made to face the law,” he said.
Lalong called on community and religious leaders to support government’s bid to rid the state of all forms of crimes and criminalities.
He urged the people to fish out bad eggs and criminal elements living in their communities in order to make the state crime-free.
“Our communities must rise to the challenge by identifying and fishing out criminals in their domains.
“We must ensure that we pass relevant information to security agencies to act.
“Last week, we inaugurated 592 Community Police Constables, recently trained by the government.
“We hope they will boost the work of the conventional security personnel to improve security in our communities,” he further said.
Giving a brief description of the law, Mrs Rauta Dakop, the Solicitor-General of the state and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of justice, said the law sought to prohibit any person or group of persons from forcible takeover of landed property belonging to either a citizen or government.
(NAN)
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