Are you a kidnapper?

Kidnapping is becoming a lucrative business in Nigeria as perpetrators now demand hefty ransoms and do not hesitate to take lives, making the stakes high for victims and their families. But kidnapping is a criminal offence under the Nigerian law and in all regions in Nigeria as it is captured in the two principal legislations guiding the North and the South, that is, the Criminal Code Act and the Penal Code.

Section 364 of the Criminal Code Act says any person who kidnaps another person is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for 10 years while Section 273 of the Penal Code prescribes that anyone who kidnaps or abducts another shall be imprisoned for a term which may extend to 40 years and shall also be liable to a fine.

Section 24 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 (TPPA) provides that anyone who partakes in hostage-taking, kidnapping, hijacking, etc. is liable upon conviction to life imprisonment where death does not result from the act and to a death sentence where death results from the act.

In 2021, the Nigerian Senate considered amending the Terrorism (Prevention) Act 2011 to criminalise the payment of ransom to secure the release of a kidnapped person. The Bill sought to replace Section 14 of the Terrorism Act with the following provision:

It stated, “Anyone who transfers funds, makes payment or colludes with an abductor, kidnapper or terrorist to receive any ransom for the release of any person who has been wrongfully confined, imprisoned or kidnapped is guilty of a felony and is liable on conviction to a term of imprisonment of not less than 15 years.”

This provision was however not eventually included in the law. Because kidnapping has become a major challenge nationwide, about 15 states in Nigeria have made kidnapping a capital offence. These states include Lagos, Enugu, Abia, Anambra, Oyo, Imo, Edo, Cross River, and Bayelsa.

However, not only those that kidnap for ransom are kidnappers, according to Section 364 of the Criminal Code Act, any person who unlawfully imprisons any person and takes him out of Nigeria without his consent or unlawfully imprisons any person within Nigeria in such a manner as to prevent him from applying to a court for his release or from discovering to any other person the place where he is imprisoned, or in such a manner as to prevent any person entitled to have access to him from discovering the place where he is imprisoned has committed an offence.

And such a person is guilty of a felony and liable to imprisonment for ten years. Are you holding someone against their will?  Or are you collecting ransom on behalf of kidnappers. Then you have committed a criminal offence.