24th September, 2014
The Senate on Tuesday honoured late Senator Pius Ewherido by passing the Corporate Manslaughter Bill 2014 into law after a clause-to-clause consideration.
The bill, tagged: “Bill for an Act to Make Provisions Creating the Offence of Corporate Manslaughter and for Matters Incidental Thereto 2013”, was sponsored by the late senator.
It seeks to punish corporate negligence and dereliction of duty, leading to death of victim and scaled second reading on 7 February 2013.
The Deputy Senate President, while presiding over the passage of the bill in Abuja, said the passage was in honour of the late senator.
“The passage of this bill into law is a befitting tribute to our late friend and colleague, Sen. Pius Ewherido. I am sure that wherever he is, he will be happy today that this bill has been eventually passed.”
NAN reports that the bill was fashioned after the British Corporate Manslaughter Bill and similar experience in Hong Kong.
Late Sen. Ewherido (PDP-Delta) who died on June 30, 2013, had said the bill was to protect citizens against occurrences like the DANA air crash.
He also said the bill, if passed into law, would equally punish any employee who served as an “accessory for manslaughter” by negligently performing or sabotaging their employers in any event which resulted in death.
In his lead debate, Ewherido had said provisions of the bill fell within the definition of killing in Section 308 of the Criminal Code.
Section 308 of the code states that “except as hereinafter set forth, any person who causes the death of another directly or indirectly by any means whatever is deemed to have killed another person”.
“Even in societies where the institutions of government charged with the prescription of standards are effective and functional, with disciplined and ethically committed people to their duties and countries, their governments recognise the new challenges posed by industrialisation, population explosion and mobility of humans.”
The bill was referred to the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters before its passage into law.