The Senate on Wednesday took a major step toward overhauling Nigeria’s counter-kidnapping framework, advancing amendments to the 2022 Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act that would classify kidnapping and related offences as terrorism and impose the death penalty on everyone involved in the crime.
The proposed law — sponsored by Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele — expands liability beyond the direct perpetrators to include financiers, informants, logistics providers, harbourers, transporters, and anyone who knowingly aids the crime.
Debated during a plenary session presided over by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, the bill received strong bipartisan support, with lawmakers describing it as a necessary escalation against Nigeria’s worsening kidnapping crisis.
Akpabio referred the bill to the Committees on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, National Security and Intelligence, and Interior, directing them to hold a public hearing and submit a report within two weeks.
Leading the debate, Bamidele said kidnapping in Nigeria had evolved into “coordinated, commercialised and militarised violence” that now bears all the hallmarks of terrorism.
He warned that families were being ruined by ransom payments and communities destabilised by relentless abductions.
“This is no longer an ordinary crime. The patterns of operation and the sheer ruthlessness now carry all the characteristics of terrorism,” he said, stressing that the amendment targets criminals and their networks, not innocent communities. He also emphasised that prosecutions would comply with constitutional safeguards.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior, Adams Oshiomhole, supported the bill and criticised the country’s de-radicalisation programmes as ineffective.
“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,” he said.
Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, Chair of the South-East Development Commission Committee, highlighted the human toll of kidnapping.
“Young girls are raped. Women are widowed. Families lose breadwinners. Anyone involved — sponsors, informants, logistics suppliers — must face the consequences,” he stated.
Senator Victor Umeh, Chair of the Committee on National Population and NIMC, called for scrutiny of financial institutions facilitating ransom payments.
“It beats the imagination that ransoms running into hundreds of millions are paid through financial institutions and nothing happens,” he said, insisting that banks and individuals complicit in such transactions must be held accountable.
Umeh added: “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 Abba Moro also supported the amendment, calling it a collective stand to restore internal security.
“We can no longer allow the country to be terrorised. Kidnappers must face capital punishment,” he said.
Bamidele noted that the amendment would empower security agencies to trace and confiscate kidnapping-linked assets, disrupt ransom-funding channels, improve inter-agency coordination, and ensure faster pre-trial processes.
“This is a war on the Nigerian people. Our response must be firm, decisive and unambiguous,” he declared.
