First Lady Oluremi Tinubu has called on state governors and lawmakers to prescribe capital punishment for kidnapping in the country.

Oluremi, while condemning various abductions in Nigeria, described kidnappers as cowards for majorly taking hold of women and children.

The First Lady said this during a meeting with the National Women Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Friday, March 8, 2024.

She said: “They are cowards. Our hearts bleed. I call on the state governments that once we take hold of them, they deserve capital punishment. Why can’t they take men of their size, why are they touching women and children?

“What they are doing is that they are trying to kill our future, we all know that when parents are old, we rely on our children, we see them as our investments that have not gone to waste especially when they are successful.

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“Why will you now take them from their schools? Right now, I think enough is enough. As a former lawmaker, I believe that any one of them captured deserves capital punishment.

“I believe most mothers will support me on this because we carry our children for nine months, and we cannot watch what we love to wither away.”

Oluremi told the women that the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu places a strong emphasis on creating opportunities for women to thrive economically, socially, and politically in the country.

She also celebrated International Women’s Day with the women and all other Nigerian women for their courage, resilience, and doggedness, saying: “On my part, the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) was established to focus on championing women’s causes and implementing various programmes and initiatives nationwide with our motto, which states, ‘towards a better life for families’.

“Accelerating progress in any endeavour requires that women have to be more involved, that is why I see investing in women, not as charity, but a crucial strategy to build the future of our dear nation, Nigeria.”

Earlier, the group, led by its National Women Leader, Dr Mary Idele Alile, her Deputy, Hajia Zainab Ibrahim and members of the Executive, thanked the First Lady for her impacts on the lives of Nigerians through her various interventions on the platform of the RHI.

The group also requested Oluremi to help them by pressing for more inclusion in the activities of the present government.

The Star