SENATE PUSH HARD ON DEATH PENALTY FOR KIDNAPPERS, INFORMANT, FINANCIERS
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BY UTHMAN MUHAMMAD
On Wednesday, the Senate dove into a heated debate over changes to the 2022 Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act. They pushed hard for the death penalty—not just for kidnappers, but also for anyone who helps them out or supports their operations.
Every senator backed new measures to give law enforcement more muscle. The plan lets them go after kidnapping rings more aggressively and treats kidnapping as an act of terrorism, no matter where it happens in the country.
Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, the Senate Leader, kicked off the debate during Wednesday’s plenary. Senator Adam Oshomhole, who chairs the Senate Committee on Interiors, joined in, as did Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, chairman of the South-East Development Commission, and the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Abba Moro. Several others also weighed in.
After days of heated back-and-forth between senators, the Senate—led by Senator Godswill Akpabio—ended up backing changes to the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act. The amendments, which the Senate leader put forward, sailed through with everyone on board.
Right after the vote, Akpabio sent the bill over to three committees: Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, National Security and Intelligence, and Interior. He told them to dig deeper and polish things up at a public hearing. Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters takes the lead, but all three committees have to come back with their findings in two weeks.
During the debate on Wednesday, Bamidele spelled out why these changes matter. The crux? They want to officially label kidnapping, hostage-taking, and similar crimes as acts of terrorism—and slap the death penalty on anyone convicted, with no chance for a lesser sentence or a fine.
Bamidele didn’t pull any punches about why the punishment is so harsh. He said kidnapping and hostage-taking aren’t just rare horrors anymore. These crimes have exploded, turning into organized, militarized, and even commercial operations. It’s not scattered cases here and there; it’s a full-blown crisis driven by criminal networks.
Across every region of the country, the Senate leader argued that kidnapping “has instilled widespread fear in communities; undermined national economic activities and agricultural output; interrupted children’s education; bankrupted families forced to pay ransom; overstretched our security forces, and claimed countless innocent lives.”
He further argued that the patterns of organisation, brutality and destabilisation associated with kidnapping “now carry all the characteristics of terrorism. It is no longer adequate to treat these acts as ordinary criminal offences. The legal framework must reflect the true magnitude of the threat.”
Bamidele said the bill aims to label kidnapping and hostage-taking as acts of terrorism, because these crimes hit families, the economy, and the whole political system hard.
He, therefore, noted that classifying kidnapping, hostage-taking and other related offences as acts of terrorism would no doubt empower our security agencies with broader operational authority, intelligence capabilities, and prosecutorial tools available under counter-terrorism law.
Besides designating kidnapping as acts of terrorism, Bamidele said the bill prescribed death penalty “not only for the perpetrators and financiers of such heinous acts, but also for their informants, logistics providers, harbourers, transporters, and anyone who knowingly assists, facilitates, or supports kidnapping operations.
“Attempt, conspiracy, or incitement to kidnap attracts the same penalty. This strong deterrent is necessary to confront kidnapping at the scale it currently operates,” the Senate leader pointed out with the resolve to strengthen internal peace and stability.
He also noted that the bill was aimed “at dismantling kidnapping networks by enabling stronger enforcement: By placing kidnapping under the terrorism framework, agencies can pursue asset tracing and forfeiture, intelligence-led operations, inter-agency coordination, swift pre-trial procedures under terrorism laws and disruption of funding and logistics chains.”
While urging his colleagues, Bamidele pointed out that Nigerians “are kidnapped on highways, in schools, in homes, on farms, and in markets. Innocent children, vulnerable women, hardworking men, traditional rulers, travellers, and public servants have all become targets.”
“These criminals kill victims even after ransom is paid; subject victims to brutal torture, rape, mutilate and starve hostages and use ransom proceeds to fund more weapons and more crimes. This is not a mere crime. It is terrorism in its purest form.
“Our moral, constitutional, and legislative duty is to protect Nigerian lives. If an offence repeatedly results in mass murder, mass fear, mass displacement, and systemic destabilisation, then the strongest legal sanction becomes necessary
“This Bill does not target communities or innocent persons. It targets violent offenders and the networks that enable them. All prosecutions will still comply with constitutional guarantees, due process, rights to fair trial, and judicial oversight.
“The menace of kidnapping has reached a level that threatens our national unity, our economic stability, and the safety of every Nigerian family. It is a war on the people, and our response must be firm, decisive, and unambiguous,” he said.
At the plenary on Wednesday, Oshiomole backed Bamidele’s amendment to the Terrorism Act. He criticized the deradicalisation programs, saying they haven’t stopped extremists, hostage takers, kidnappers, or terrorists from committing terrible crimes.
Oshiomole said the bill would put an end to a loophole where terrorists get arrested but walk free, all because of so-called deradicalisation, without facing real consequences for their actions.
“Some of these guys went back to their crimes. We should not continue with deradicalisation programmes again. We cannot spend so much money on prosecution and the suspects will not face the wrath of law.
“Even the Bible and Quran say those who are killed have no right to be alive. No more de-radicalisation. If you are caught and convicted for acts of terrorism, then the penalty should be death,” Oshiomole said.
The Senate has unanimously agreed to approve a bill targeting kidnapping, hostage-taking, and related offenses. This legislative approval signifies a strong, collective stance against such crimes. The bill underscores the importance of holding informants, sponsors, and all parties involved in these illicit activities accountable and ensuring they face appropriate consequences.
“Nigerians have suffered at the hands of kidnappers. Young girls have been raped. Women have become widows for no reason. This must not continue again,” Kalu called attention of his colleagues to the untold and grievous pains that Nigerians had suffered.
The minority leader also lent his voice to the bill, pointing out that the bill “is a unanimous decision of the Senate. It is a very straightforward bill. I think we should go ahead and allow this bill to be passed into second reading with the hope that kidnappers will face capital punishment.”
Although he noted that kidnapping had become a business enterprise. He observed that “this bill becomes expedient as one of the measures that the Senate will come up with to address kidnapping, hostage-taking and other related offences.”
In his presentation, Chairman, Senate Committee on National Population and NIMC, Senator Victor Umeh, condemned in strong terms the kidnapping and gruesome murder of victims for no just cause.
He added that the trend of such crimes “will no doubt compel men of conscience to rise in support of the bill. They will collect ransom and still kill their victims. We should do everything to amend the Terrorism Act to classify kidnapping, hostage-taking and other related offences as acts of terrorism. We have to go dig into the people who facilitate this criminal enterprise. Financial institutions are also part of it.”
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