By Hassan Taiye

In its efforts to decisively address the spate of insecurity nationwide, the Senate Wednesday extensively debated the proposed amendment to the 2022 Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, insisting on prescribing death penalty for kidnappers and anyone who knowingly assists, facilitates, or supports kidnapping operations.

The upper chamber also unanimously agreed to the proposals that would authorise law enforcement agencies to dismantle kidnapping networks by enabling stronger enforcement as well as placing kidnapping under the terrorism framework anywhere in the federation.

Led by Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, the debate took place at the plenary on Wednesday with contributions from Chairman, Senate Committee on Interiors, Senator Adam Oshomhole; Chairman, Senate Committee on South-East Development Commission, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu and Minority Leader of the Senate, Senator Abba Moro, among others.

After exhaustive debates across the political divides at its Chamber, the senate, presided over by the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, unanimously approved amendments to the he Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act as proposed by the senate leader.

Consequently, Akpabio referred the bill to the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Committee on National Security and Intelligence as well as the Committee on Interior for further consultation and fine tuning at the public hearing.

While he noted that the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters would be the lead committee, Akpabio mandated the committees to report back to the Senate in two weeks.

Leading debate on the bill Wednesday, Bamidele explained the essence of the amendment was to designate kidnapping, hostage-taking and related offences as acts of terrorism and prescribe the death penalty for such offences without option of fine or alternative sentence; and for related matters.

He justified the gravity of the prescribed penalty for kidnapping, hostage-taking and other related offences, noting that such offences “have become one of 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, the senate leader argued that 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.

He, further, argued 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.”

Having the collateral consequence of kidnapping and hostage-taking on family, economy and polity, Bamidele said the bill was designed to designate kidnapping and hostage-taking as acts of terrorism.

He, therefore, noted that classifying kidnapping, hostage-taking and other related offences as acts of terrorism would no doubt empower our security agencies with broader operational authority, intelligence capabilities, and prosecutorial tools available under counter-terrorism law.

Besides designating kidnapping as acts of terrorism, Bamidele said the bill prescribed death penalty “not only for the perpetrators and financiers of such heinous acts, but also for their informants, logistics providers, harbourers, transporters, and anyone who knowingly assists, facilitates, or supports kidnapping operations.

“Attempt, conspiracy, or incitement to kidnap attracts the same penalty. This strong deterrent is necessary to confront kidnapping at the scale it currently operates,” the senate leader pointed out with the resolve to strengthen internal peace and stability.

He also noted that the bill was aimed “at dismantling kidnapping networks by enabling stronger enforcement: By placing kidnapping under the terrorism framework, agencies can pursue asset tracing and forfeiture, intelligence-led operations, inter-agency coordination, swift pre-trial procedures under terrorism laws and disruption of funding and logistics chains.”

While urging his colleagues, Bamidele pointed out that Nigerians “are kidnapped on highways, in schools, in homes, on farms, and in markets. Innocent children, vulnerable women, hardworking men, traditional rulers, travelers, and public servants have all become targets.

“These criminals kill victims even after ransom is paid; subject victims to brutal torture; rape, mutilate, and 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 destabilization, 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 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.

Also at the plenary Wednesday, Oshiomole threw his weight behind Bamidele’s amendment to the Terrorism Act, though faulted the deradicalisation programmes, which according to him, had not prevented extremists, hostage takers, kidnappers and terrorists from such heinous crimes.

Oshiomole, thus, said the bill would end mischief in the act of terrorism in which “a terrorist will be arrested and allowed to go without facing consequence of his crimes in the name of deradicalisation

“Some of these guys went back to their crimes. We should not continue with deradicalisation programmes again. We cannot spend so much money on prosecution and the suspects will not face the wrath of law.
“Even the Bible and Quran say those who are killed have no right to be alive.. No more de-radicalization. If you are caught and convicted for acts of terrorism, then the penalty should be death,” Oshiomole said.

Contributing to the debate,Kalu observed that the senate unanimously “agreed with this bill. It is a natural thing for us to approve the bill. As a consequence, informants, sponsors and everybody involved in kidnapping, hostage and other related offence must face the consequence,

“Nigerians have suffered in the hands of kidnappers. Young girls have been raped. Women have become widows for no reason. This must not continue again,” Kalu called attention of his colleagues to untold and grievous pains that Nigerians had suffered.

The minority leader also lent his voice to the bill, pointing out that the bill “is a unanimous decision of the Senate. It is a very straightforward bill, I think we should go ahead and allow this bill to be passed into second reading with the hope that kidnappers will face capital punishment.”

Although he noted that kidnapping had become a business enterprise. More firmly observed that the senate “can never continue to terrorise. Hence, this bill becomes expedient as one of the measures that the senate will come up with to address kidnapping, hostage-taking and other related offenses.

In his presentation, Chairman, Senate Committee on National Population and NIMC. Senator Victor Umeh condemned in strong terms kidnapping and gruesome murder of victims for no just cause.

He added that the trend of such crimes “will no doubt compel men of conscience to rise in support of the bill. They will collect ransome and still kill their victims. We should do everything to amend the Terrorism Act to classify kidnapping, hostage-taking and other related offences as acts of terrorism. We have to go dig into the people who facilitate this criminal enterprise. Financial institutions are also part of it.”