19.12.2025
President Bola Tinubu in his budget presentation on Friday vowed to crackdown on non-state actors bearing arms and committing crimes.
He listed that bandits, violent cult groups, kidnappers, foreign-linked mercenaries, and other armed non-state actors will be treated as terrorists under a new security framework to be rolled out by his administration.
“Under this new architecture, any armed group or gun-wielding non-state actors operating outside state authority will be regarded as terrorists,” the former Lagos State governor told the gathering at the National Assembly in Abuja.
“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.”
He said the new doctrine will “fundamentally change how we confront terrorism and other violent crimes”.
In recent months, Nigeria has experienced a surge in crimes such as mass abductions and banditry, among others.
Despite these, the president is unrelenting in his resolve for a peaceful Nigeria, and has declared war on criminals, whom he said will get “no mercy” from his government.
“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.
He promised to continue to invest in security and increase the capacity of the armed forces and other security agencies
“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,” he said.