President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has announced that bandits and foreign-linked mercenaries will now be officially categorized and treated as terrorists.
The President said the reclassification of bandits and foreign-linked mercenaries as bandits is a cornerstone of his administration’s new security architecture, aimed at giving the military and intelligence agencies broader legal and operational powers to eliminate non-state actors threatening the country’s sovereignty.
Speaking while presenting the 2026 budget appropriation bill, the President emphasized that the era of treating armed groups with “kid gloves” is over.
He noted that the involvement of external elements in local conflicts has necessitated a shift in policy.
By labeling bandits and foreign-linked mercenaries as terrorists, Tinubu said the federal government can now deploy more aggressive kinetic measures and streamline the prosecution of captured suspects under the Terrorism Prevention Act.
Under the new security architecture, the president said bandits, violent cults, militias, armed gangs, forest-based criminal groups, and foreign-linked mercenaries would no longer be treated as isolated criminal elements but as terrorist threats to national stability.
“We will usher in a new era of criminal justice. We will show no mercy to those who commit or support acts of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping for ransom, and other violent crimes,” Tinubu said.
“Our administration is resetting the national security architecture and establishing a new national counterterrorism doctrine — a holistic redesign anchored on unified command, intelligence gathering, community stability, and counter-insurgency. This new doctrine will fundamentally change how we confront terrorism and other violent crimes.”
The president said the new framework will unify all counterterrorism operations under a coordinated command structure to ensure efficiency and rapid response.
Tinubu further detailed the scope of the new measures, identifying groups that will face stricter enforcement actions.
He said the administration’s approach is comprehensive, targeting not only perpetrators but also their enablers.
“Under this new architecture, any armed group or gun-wielding non-state actors operating outside state authority will be regarded as terrorists,” he said.
“Bandits, militias, armed gangs, armed robbers, violent cults, forest-based armed groups, and foreign-linked mercenaries will all be targeted.
“We will go after all those who perpetrate violence for political or sectarian ends, along with those who finance and facilitate their evil schemes.”
The president assured Nigerians that his government is committed to restoring law and order across all parts of the country.
“We will invest in security with clear accountability for outcomes — because security spending must deliver results,” he added.
“To secure our country, our priority will remain on increasing the fighting capability of our armed forces and other security agencies and boosting the effectiveness of our fighting forces with cutting-edge equipment and other hardware.”
Pan-Atlantic Kompass reports that this development comes as Nigeria and the United States agreed to form a joint security working group over insecurity and alleged persecution of Christians in the West African nation.
Recall also that U.S President Donald Trump had redesignated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern over alleged Christian genocide.
Since then, the Nigerian government has been taking several steps to ensure the safety of every Nigerian.
