BREAKING: Tinubu declares bandits, armed groups and others as terrorists

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has declared all armed non-state actors operating outside the authority of the Nigerian terrorists.

Tinubu made the declaration during the presentation of the 2026 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly.

According to him, 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.

Our administration is resetting the national security architecture and establishing a new national counterterrorism doctrine; a holistic redesign anchored on unified command, intelligence, community stability, and counter-insurgency,” the president said.

“This new doctrine will fundamentally change how we confront terrorism and other violent crimes that have become existential threats to our corporate survival and have heightened anxiety among our people.”

Under the new framework, Tinubu said the government will no longer draw distinctions between different categories of violent non-state actors, declaring that any armed group acting outside the authority of the state would henceforth be treated as terrorists.

“Henceforth, and under this new architecture, any armed group or gun-wielding non-state actors operating outside state authority will be regarded as terrorists,” he said.

He listed those affected to include “bandits, militias, armed gangs, criminal networks with weapons, armed robbers, violent cult groups, forest-based armed collectives, and foreign-linked mercenaries,” adding that groups or individuals carrying out violence for “political, ethnic, financial, or sectarian objectives” would also fall under the terrorist classification.

Tinubu further warned that groups involved in extortion, kidnapping, or territorial control would face the same designation.

“Members of any group extorting communities, kidnapping civilians, occupying or seeking to occupy territory within Nigeria will be classified as terrorists,” he said.

“The denominator is that if you wield lethal weapons and act outside the state’s authority, you are a terrorist.”

Beyond armed actors, the president extended the classification to those who support or enable violent groups, including financiers and political intermediaries.

Any individual or entity that enables the listed groups as financiers, money handlers, harbourers, informants, ransom facilitators, and negotiators will also be classified as terrorists,” Tinubu said.

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He added that “political protectors and intermediaries, transporters, arms suppliers, and safe-house owners will be declared as terrorists,” while warning that even influential figures would not be exempt.

“Politicians, traditional rulers, community leaders, and religious leaders who facilitate and encourage violent actions and terror within Nigeria and against our citizens are also terrorists,” the president said.

Nigeria has recently witnessed increased bandit attacks, which forced the government to declare a state of emergency on securityand withdraw police from VIPs and others.