In a major push to curb Nigeria’s escalating kidnapping crisis, the Senate on Wednesday progressed amendments to the 2022 Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, approving provisions that would extend the death penalty to every individual involved in kidnapping.
Those covered under the revised sanctions include perpetrators, financiers, informants, logistics providers, harbourers, transporters and anyone who knowingly supports abductions.
The amendment bill, sponsored by Senate Leader Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, seeks to classify kidnapping, hostage-taking and related crimes as acts of terrorism nationwide.
It also proposes expanded powers for security agencies to track illicit financial flows, dismantle logistics networks and carry out intelligence-led counterterrorism operations.
Debated extensively during a plenary session presided over by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, the proposal attracted strong bipartisan backing. Akpabio subsequently referred the bill to the Committees on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, National Security and Intelligence, and Interior, directing them to conduct a public hearing and submit their findings within two weeks.
Bamidele, leading the discourse, argued that kidnapping in the country had evolved into “coordinated, commercialised and militarised violence” that now mirrors terrorism in its structure and ruthlessness.
According to him, ransom payments are impoverishing families, terrorising communities and destabilising entire regions.
He said: “This is no longer an ordinary crime. The patterns of operation and the sheer ruthlessness now carry all the characteristics of terrorism.”
He noted that the amendment targets violent offenders and their operational networks, while ensuring that prosecutions adhere strictly to constitutional protections.
Senator Adams Oshiomhole, Chairman of the Committee on Interior, endorsed the bill but criticised the nation’s deradicalisation programme as ineffective.
He said: “Some of these guys go back to their crimes. Enough is enough. If you are convicted for terrorism, the penalty should be death. Even the Bible and Quran affirm that he who kills has no right to live.”
Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, Chair of the South-East Development Commission Committee, described the suffering caused by kidnappers as unbearable for Nigerians.
“Young girls are raped. Women are widowed. Families lose breadwinners. Anyone involved, sponsors, informants, logistics suppliers, must face the consequences,” he said.
A more pointed concern was raised by Senator Victor Umeh, Chairman of the Committee on National Population and NIMC, who urged tighter scrutiny of financial institutions through which ransom payments are processed.
“It beats the imagination that ransoms running into hundreds of millions are paid through financial institutions and nothing happens,” he said.
According to him, banks and individuals enabling ransom transactions must be identified and prosecuted, with the law clearly outlining penalties for such complicity.
He said: “When kidnappers are caught, they should know that the price is death. Those who survive the ordeal describe their captors as people who are not human.”
Minority Leader, Senator Abba Moro, also supported the amendment, describing it as a crucial national consensus aimed at restoring public safety.
“We can no longer allow the country to be terrorised. Kidnappers must face capital punishment,” he said.
Bamidele further explained that the amendment would empower security agencies to trace and seize assets linked to kidnapping, block ransom financing channels, enhance inter-agency collaboration and accelerate pre-trial procedures.
He said: “This is a war on the Nigerian people. Our response must be firm, decisive and unambiguous.”
With kidnappings now rampant on highways, in schools, farms, residences and marketplaces, the Senate’s latest action represents one of its most forceful legislative steps to confront kidnapping as a mounting national security threat.
