The Federal High Court’s decision to sentence three convicts to life imprisonment for the kidnapping of students and teachers in Oriire LGA, Oyo State, is profoundly inadequate.
When perpetrators abduct innocent citizens and brutally behead two teachers, a “life” sentence sends the wrong message about the value of Nigerian lives — especially the lives of educators and children who were simply trying to go to school.
Kidnapping in Nigeria has become an industry of terror. It destroys families, traumatizes communities, and holds the nation’s future hostage. The cold-blooded murder of teachers adds a level of savagery that demands more than incarceration.
These were not crimes of impulse. They were calculated acts of violence, planned and executed with unimaginable cruelty. Life imprisonment leaves room for parole, political interference, or prison breaks. It fails to deliver the final justice Nigerians expect for blood crimes.
I share the disappointment expressed in the public reaction. The Department of State Services is right to appeal. The sentence is not commensurate with the offense: abduction plus murder.
In a country battling rampant insecurity, our courts must send an unambiguous signal. If you kidnap and kill defenceless teachers and students, the state will respond with the full weight of the law.
Too many similar cases end with light or poorly enforced sentences. That only emboldens criminal gangs.
True justice in this case would have been the death penalty — a position supported by many victims’ families and security-conscious citizens for capital offenses involving terrorism, kidnapping with murder, and banditry.
Anything less risks normalizing the devaluation of human life in the face of evil.
May the appeal yield a stronger outcome. May the souls of the murdered teachers rest in peace. Enough is enough. Our justice system must stop treating monsters with kid gloves.
Signed:
Comrade James Onifade
Advocate for Good Governance and Judicial Reform
