By Henry Umoru

Corporate organizations and employers who have until now looked aside on issues concerning the wellbeing of their employees in the workplace could now be liable under an innovative legislative proposal from Senator Pius Ewherido.

For corporate organizations who have put profit above the lives of their workers the day of reckoning is at hand. A bill currently in the works in the senate aims to make corporate bodies criminally liable for breaches of safety that cause physical infirmity of their staff within the work place.

The push is coming through a bill sponsored by Senator Pius Ehwerido, DPP, Delta Central which prescribes various punishments for corporate organizations and their officials who are negligent towards the safety of their employees.

The bill entitled “a bill for an act to make provisions creating the offence of corporate manslaughter and for matters incidental thereto 2013.

Though the initiative from Senator Ehwerido was almost universally acclaimed, the process he has adopted was, however, not without some controversy as some of his colleagues led by the deputy senate president, Senator Ike Ekweremadu faulted it.

But irrespective of the legalese employed by Ekweremadu and a few others, Ehwerido’s bill was, nevertheless generally regarded as a yellow card for corporate organizations with an inclination towards bad behaviour.

Senator Ewherido

Presenting the bill to the senate in pleanary, Ehwerido, remarkably the only Democratic Peoples Party, DPP senator in the chamber, said the bill aimed to address the lacuna in the criminal code which did not make provision for such acts as corporate negligence as a result of developments at the time of the promulgation of the criminal code almost 100 years ago.

‘’This bill seeks to create the offences of corporate manslaughter to make corporate bodies, entities and agencies culpable for their willful acts of negligence, dereliction of duty and or gross incompetence which lead to any event causing the death of a person and accessory to corporate manslaughter for persons who while working with corporate bodies and agencies fail, negligently perform and or sabotage their employers which result in any event causing the death of a person,” Ewherido said.

Explaining offence of Corporate Manslaughter, Senator Ewherido said, ‘’any act of willful negligence, dereliction of duty and or gross incompetence in the course of the legitimate activities of a body corporate, government department or agency specified in the schedule to this section, which causes the death of a person to whom the body is contractually bound howsoever or to whom the body by its activities owes a duty of care under common law is guilty of the offence of corporate manslaughter.”

Support for the bill came from Senators Magnus Abe, PDP, Rivers South, James Manager PDP, Delta South among others.

Emphasizing his opposition to the bill, Ekweremadu, PDP, Enugu West said, ‘’I do not intend to support this bill. In content, I have a problem with it. I have not seen man slaughter bill of UK or Hong Kong.

In terms of law, when you talk about manslaughter, the punishment is jail but in terms of corporate manslaughter, you cannot take an organization to jail, I think there is a misconception and I think our senator should have a rethink. There is no instance of fear he is trying to express. It is entirely hypothetical.”

Senators Heineken Lokpobiri, PDP, Bayelsa Westand Paulinus Igwe PDP, Ebonyi Central also gave mixed support to the proposal.

Following the submissions, the bill was read the second time and passed on to the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Human Rights for further legislative action.

As the senate president, Senator David Mark said:
“It is a technical issue and that is why I concentrated on asking lawyers. We cannot pretend what it contains. If you convict a company, what happens? There is need for the public to be part of this bill.”

“Committee on judiciary should filter and bring a balance of what public opinion would be. Once you engage lawyers to sort out issues, they come with divergent opinions. I join others to appeal that we allow for public hearing and debate because it will be very interesting.”

Indeed, Senator Ewherido has provoked an interesting debate that is bound to generate much attention from both corporate and individual Nigerians.