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Nigeria’s Senate has dramatically escalated the country’s fight against kidnapping, voting to classify abduction as an act of terrorism and prescribe the death penalty for convicted offenders in a sweeping response to the nation’s rising wave of violent crime.
The resolution, adopted during plenary, comes amid mounting public anger over mass and targeted kidnappings that have terrorised rural communities and destabilised urban centres across several states. Lawmakers said the era of leniency was over, insisting that only the toughest possible legal deterrent could halt what they described as a “commercialised industry of human suffering”.
Under the Senate’s newly endorsed framework, kidnapping will be treated as a terrorist offence where it is carried out to instil fear, destabilise communities or extract ransom. Convicted offenders would face the maximum punishment allowed under Nigerian law.
Senators argued that increasingly organised criminal networks have turned kidnapping into a sophisticated enterprise, eroding public confidence, disrupting local economies and overwhelming security agencies. “This is no longer ordinary criminality; it is terror against the Nigerian people,” one lawmaker told the chamber.
The move builds on earlier legislative efforts. In 2022, the National Assembly approved capital punishment for kidnappers where victims die in captivity, while states such as Edo and Kogi have adopted similarly stringent laws. What sets the Senate’s latest action apart is its attempt to create a unified, national standard by embedding kidnapping within existing anti-terrorism frameworks.
However, significant legal and practical hurdles remain before the proposal can be enforced nationwide. The measure must be harmonised with existing laws and receive further legislative approvals. Analysts have also raised concerns about weak prosecution rates, limited investigative capacity and congested courts, which could undermine the effectiveness of harsher penalties.
For now, the Senate’s message is unequivocal: kidnapping is to be treated as terror, and the State is prepared to respond with its harshest possible sanction.
