The Federal Government has formally designated kidnappers and violent armed groups as terrorists, marking a significant escalation in the country’s response to abductions and attacks in rural communities.
The announcement was made on Monday in Abuja by the Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, during an end-of-year media briefing.
Idris said that any individual or armed group involved in the kidnapping of children, attacks on farmers, or the terrorisation of communities would henceforth be treated as terrorists and confronted accordingly.
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He explained that the designation empowers security agencies to deploy full counterterrorism strategies, enhances intelligence coordination among agencies, and allows for quicker and more decisive operational action.
The minister also disclosed that coordinated inter-agency operations carried out in 2025 led to the arrest of several high-profile suspects, including the leader of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) in Nigeria.
As part of the strengthened security framework, Idris said trained forest guards would be deployed to protect rural communities, forests and remote areas commonly used by criminal groups as hideouts.