Senate Seeks Death Penalty For Kidnappers, Sponsors, Informants

The Senate on Wednesday prescribed the death penalty for kidnappers and their financiers, as well as their informants, as the legislative chamber begins an amendment to the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act to classify kidnapping as an act of terrorism.

With the move, the lawmakers, in a unanimous voice vote, sought to authorise security and law enforcement agencies to dismantle kidnapping networks anywhere they are found in Nigeria.

Leading the debate on the bill, Senator Leader Opeyemi Bamidele said the essence of the amendment was to designate kidnapping, hostage-taking and related offences as acts of terrorism.

The death penalty, he explained, comes with no option of a fine or an alternative sentence.

“Such offences have become the most pervasive and destructive crimes in our nation today. What were once isolated incidents have escalated into coordinated, commercialised, and militarised acts of violence perpetrated by organised criminal groups.

“Across every region of our country, 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,” Bamidele said.

The Senate Leader noted 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,” he added.

Lamenting the collateral damage kidnapping and hostage-taking have wreaked on families, the economy and the polity, Bamidele said there was every justification for the amendment.

He expressed the hope that classifying kidnapping, hostage-taking and other related offences as acts of terrorism that attract the death penalty would empower the security agencies with broader operational authority, intelligence capabilities, and prosecutorial tools available under counter-terrorism laws.

Also, to get the death penalty are enablers of kidnappers, such as their financiers, informants, logistics providers, harbourers, transporters, and anyone who knowingly assists, facilitates, or supports kidnapping operations.

Going by the amendment, attempts, conspiracy, or incitement to kidnap also attract the death penalty.

“This strong deterrent is necessary to confront kidnapping at the scale it currently operates,” Bamidele said, pointing out the resolve of the Senate to strengthen internal peace and stability across the country.

The amendment also empowers the relevant federal agencies to trace and seize assets traced to offenders through the instrumentality of the existing laws and judicial procedure.

Bemoaning the scale of kidnapping and abduction, the Senate Leader urged his colleagues to give full support to the amendment, considering the damaging effects of the acts on the national psyche.

He said, “Nigerians are being kidnapped on highways, in schools, in homes, on farms, and in the markets. Innocent children, vulnerable women, hard-working 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, and mutilation; 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 a 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.”

Other senators who supported the amendment through their contributions were Senators Adams Oshiomhole, Orji Uzor Kalu, Victor Umeh, and Abba Moro, among others.

The bill was consequently referred to three committees: the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters; the Committee on National Security and Intelligence; and the Committee on Interior for further legislative action through public hearings.

They are to turn in their report in two weeks.