28/07/2025
On July 15, 2025, gunmen attacked Jebu village in Plateau State, killing 27 people, including children, and burning homes, despite residents’ early warnings to security forces. In March 2024, bandits abducted 287 schoolchildren in Kaduna’s Chikun area, part of over 700 abductions across Nigeria’s North West and North East. In 2024, state agents suppressed the protests, arresting over 1,000 people, including minors charged with treason, a tactic that continued into 2025 to silence citizens demanding better security and improved living conditions. These incidents highlight Nigeria’s escalating insecurity crisis—driven by banditry, kidnappings, and herder-farmer conflicts—and the state’s often heavy-handed legal responses.
Insecurity threatens lives and democracy, with laws like the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 being misused to suppress dissent. This article examines Nigeria’s legal framework for addressing banditry and kidnappings, focusing on contemporary developments, state suppression, and human rights implications
This article examines Nigeria’s legal framework for addressing security challenges, banditry, kidnappings and human rights implications.