Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani was unequivocal: bandits and kidnappers should be regarded as terrorists and should not be granted amnesty or a second chance.
On Channels Television’s Politics Today, he played no politics. He made the point clearly that individuals responsible for killing innocent citizens and attacking communities must face decisive action.
For years, Nigerians have heard the same refrain after every atrocity: suspects arrested, investigations ongoing, intelligence being processed. Too often, the story ended there. Arrests did not consistently become prosecutions, and prosecutions did not consistently become convictions. That failure helped nourish the atmosphere in which kidnappers, bandits and terrorists thrived. It taught violent offenders that the state might pursue them but might not finish the job.
That is why the recent string of courtroom outcomes deserves more than passing notice. Nigeria is beginning, at last, to show that violent crime can be fought not only in forests, on highways and through covert operations, but also in the courtroom. That shift is not cosmetic. It goes to the heart of state authority. A government proves its strength not only by making arrests, but by assembling evidence, filing charges, sustaining prosecutions and securing lawful judgments.
The broader national picture is striking. Records show that in July 2024 Nigerian courts had convicted 125 Boko Haram Islamist militants and financiers in mass trials. Also in April 2026, in four days of proceedings in Abuja, 386 convictions were secured from 508 terrorism cases. Whatever legitimate questions may be asked about procedure, scale or consistency, those figures point to something unmistakable: the state is trying with greater seriousness to turn security operations into judicial outcomes.
Judicial Penalties
That change matters because the underlying crisis remains severe. Between July 2024 and June 2025, Nigerians paid at least N2.57 billion in ransom, while abductors demanded N48 billion. In the same period, 4,722 victims were recorded across 997 incidents, with at least 762 deaths linked to abduction-related violence. Those numbers describe not a string of isolated outrages, but a criminal economy that has fed on fear, weak deterrence and long-standing impunity. In such a climate, convictions matter because they begin to alter the cost-benefit calculation of violence.
Also Read: Sokoto Court sentences three terrorists to death
The state-level cases now coming into view reinforce that impression. In Taraba, a High Court in Jalingo sentenced three men to life imprisonment for attempted kidnapping. In Kwara, the State High Court in Ilorin convicted two men of conspiracy, armed robbery, kidnapping and illegal possession of firearms, imposing death by hanging on the armed robbery counts, life imprisonment for kidnapping and 10 years for the firearms offence.
In Anambra, a court in Nnewi sentenced two men to death for conspiracy, kidnapping and causing grievous harm to a businessman. In Ebonyi, two men were sentenced to death for kidnapping a two-year-old boy who remains missing. In Kogi, Jibrin Halilu was sentenced to death for kidnapping and murdering a neighbour after collecting ransom. These are not routine case notes. Together, they suggest a justice system that is beginning to assert itself against violent crime.
The Ekiti case captures both the promise and the importance of this moment. Across several reports, the core fact is consistent: Ibrahim Abubakar and Abdullahi Abubakar were convicted over the kidnapping of Omoboade Adesina, an NYSC staff member abducted in 2022, and the court relied on identification evidence and call-data records linking the defendants to the offence.
That is exactly the sort of disciplined, evidence-based investigation Nigerians have long demanded from security agencies. Citizens do not only want dramatic raids and headline arrests. They want investigations that can survive judicial scrutiny. In Ekiti, the significance of the case lies precisely there: the courtroom became the place where intelligence was tested and translated into legal accountability.
Kudos to DSS, OAGF
This is why the Department of State Services deserves measured credit. For an institution often judged mainly by its secrecy and arrest powers, these cases suggest another and more durable test of effectiveness: the ability to gather credible evidence, identify suspects properly, trace communications, follow the logistical chain and build files strong enough to persuade a court. A security agency earns public confidence not only when it intercepts danger, but when it proves, openly and lawfully, that it has caught the right people.
The Office of the Attorney General of the Federation also deserves recognition. Mass terrorism trials and complex kidnapping prosecutions do not organise themselves. They require legal preparation, prosecutorial discipline, courtroom coordination and the resolve to move suspects out of indefinite detention and into formal adjudication. For years, one of the loudest complaints in Nigeria’s security discourse was that suspects were rounded up and then left in legal limbo. The recent pattern suggests a more deliberate effort to close that gap.
Still, praise must not become complacency. The legitimacy of this new prosecutorial vigour will depend on due process, credible evidence and transparent proceedings. Justice is strongest when it is both firm and fair. Convictions secured without public confidence in the process will not strengthen the state for long. Convictions secured through disciplined investigation and lawful prosecution will.
Yet the central point stands. Nigeria is beginning, finally, to do what it should have done consistently long ago: turn intelligence into prosecution, and prosecution into judgment. Every such case chips away at the old culture of impunity. Every lawful conviction tells kidnappers, terrorists, arms couriers and their enablers that arrest need not be the end of the story, and that the courtroom is becoming, once again, an instrument of national defence.
That is how a serious state responds to violent crime: not only by hunting offenders, but by convicting them in court.
Crediblenewsng.com
