Senate Moves to Classify Kidnapping as Terrorism After Fresh Abductions

The Senate on 27 November 2025 introduced a bill seeking sweeping amendments to the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, barely a day after lawmakers demanded firmer action to confront Nigeria’s worsening insecurity. 

The move came against a backdrop of fresh kidnappings across the country, including the abduction of 24 schoolgirls from Government Comprehensive Girls Secondary School, Maga, in Kebbi State last week. Although the girls were freed on 25 November,  subsequent attacks have intensified public alarm. In Kwara State, bandits struck the Isapa community in Ekiti Local Government Area, abducting 11 residents in the latest incident underscoring the scale of the crisis.

The new bill, sponsored by Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central), scaled first reading immediately. It proposes that all forms of kidnapping be classified as acts of terrorism and mandates the death penalty for convicted offenders. The development followed heated exchanges during the 26 November 2025 plenary, where lawmakers warned that abductions had reached intolerable levels and demanded a decisive legislative response.

Presiding over the session, Senate President Godswill Akpabio directed Bamidele to present the amendment bill “as soon as practicable,” saying the legislature could not remain passive. 

“A very serious amendment has been proposed that the penalty for kidnapping be changed immediately to carry the maximum punishment of death,” Akpabio said. “Henceforth, kidnapping should first be classified as a terrorist act, which should attract the death penalty. Once the offence is established, a death sentence must follow. There is no discretion.” Bamidele complied with the instruction and presented the bill on 27 November.

If enacted, the amended law would expand the definition of terrorism to cover any form of kidnapping, making a death sentence mandatory whether or not the victim survives. The proposal reflects the frustration within government as Nigeria grapples with soaring insecurity, but this approach remains reactive rather than preventive. Kidnapping is already a criminal offence under Nigerian law, and ransom payments were outlawed in 2022. Yet neither measure has stemmed the activities of armed groups or significantly increased convictions.

Data from July 2024 to June 2025 shows that Nigeria’s kidnapping economy has evolved into a structured, profit-driven industry demanding nearly N48 billion in ransom within that period, of which N2.57 billion was verified to have been paid. The scale and organisation of these networks now rival legitimate business operations, underscoring how deeply entrenched the problem has become.

While the Senate’s proposal signals an attempt to strengthen deterrence, legislation alone cannot resolve an issue rooted in weak enforcement, overstretched security agencies and vast ungoverned spaces. The priority should be locating and dismantling the criminal structures already operating with near impunity. Expanding the scope of terrorism to include kidnapping may serve as a symbolic line in the sand, but without effective investigation, arrest and prosecution, it risks becoming another measure that appears forceful on paper but delivers little in practice.