Nigerians Want Mercy for Edo's Convicted Kidnappers. What Does the Law Say?

On September 29, 2026, Justice Aigbona Momodu of the Edo State Special Criminal Court sentenced Marvellous Isaac, Wisdom Michael, Rufus Emete Michael and Gift Raphael to death by hanging or lethal injection.

They were convicted on an 11-count charge covering kidnapping, conspiracy, armed robbery, cultism and unlawful possession of firearms.

The charge was a result ofthe daylight abductionof a woman at the Vegetable Market off Airport Road, Benin City, on June 14. Many Nigerians have since called for mercy. The question is whether that empathy holds up against the law.

What Did the Edo Special Criminal Court Decide?

The Edo Special Criminal Court was set up on July 1, 2026 for the fast-tracking of kidnapping and cultism trials. This was its first kidnapping verdict.

The prosecution called seven witnesses and the defence called none. The court admitted confessional statements the defence did not object to, including a pump-action firearm, a Lexus SUV and recorded interrogations.

Isaac, described as the gang leader and a member of the Eiye Confraternity, was convicted on all 11 counts. The other three were convicted on some counts and acquitted on others.

Death sentences were attached to the kidnapping counts. Lawyers for at least two of the convicts have said they will appeal.

Which Law Supports the Death Sentence for Kidnapping in Edo?

There are three layers of law that backs this judgment.

The first is the Edo State Kidnapping Prohibition Law. The 2013 version prescribed life imprisonment, and the Edo House of Assembly amended it in 2025 to make death the penalty.

The judge said the offence carries a mandatory death sentence and that he had no discretion. He was visibly emotional while saying so.

The second is the Constitution. Section 33(1) of the 1999 Constitution protects the right to life, but it allows a death sentence passed by a court for a criminal offence of which a person has been found guilty in Nigeria. A death sentence after a fair conviction is therefore constitutional.

The third is the wider body of Nigerian law. Cultism is criminalised under state law, and federal anti-terrorism legislation also prescribes death where a kidnapping leads to a victim's death.

The Edo judgment, therefore, sits inside a legal framework that has been tightening for years.

What Was the Last Death Sentence for Kidnapping in Nigeria?

One of the most recent came on June 25, 2026, when Justice Ogunmoye of the Ekiti State High Court sentenced Ibrahim Abubakar and Abdullahi Abubakar to death by hanging. They had abducted a female National Youth Service Corps member, Omoboade Adesina.

Earlier, in 2021, Sani Mohammed and Babannan Saleh were also sentenced to death for kidnapping and related crimes.

This shows a pattern where courts in different states are applying the same logic. Death sentences are being handed down, but execution is a long, separate process, so a sentence is not an execution.

Is Nigerians' Mercy for the Convicts Fair?

Death is irreversible and the discomfort is human. Mandatory sentencing stops a judge from weighing mitigation or each person's role in the crime.

Rights advocates argue that capital punishment has not addressed the roots of violent crime, such as youth unemployment and poverty. These are fair debates and the right place to settle them is the legislature.

But mercy already has legal channels. The convicts can appeal to the Court of Appeal and then the Supreme Court.

Section 233 of the Constitution gives a right of appeal to the Supreme Court in death sentence cases. Section 212 also gives a state governor the prerogative of mercy, exercised on the advice of an advisory council.

Mercy is a process the law has built in and it should not be demanded from a trial judge whose hands are tied by statute.

There is also a victim in this story. A woman was seized in front of her husband and children in a busy market. Sympathy that forgets her is incomplete.

Why Sympathy Should Not Change the Law in a Country With Rising Kidnapping

Kidnapping in Nigeria has become a business. It thrives because the risk is low and punishment is slow or absent.

The Senate once observed that even where states had death penalty laws for kidnappers, no one had been condemned. Laws that exist only on paper do not deter anyone.

The cost of that failure is carried by families who sell land and borrow money for ransom, by victims who carry trauma for life, and by those who never return.

Highways, farms, campuses and now city markets have become the hunting grounds for the criminals. A gang that can strike in broad daylight is not afraid of the law.

If every conviction in a high-profile case is met with enough public pressure to soften the outcome, the law becomes a statement that can be softened at the first cry of mercy.

Kidnappers watch these verdicts closely. Courts apply the law as written and if Nigerians believe mandatory death is too harsh, the lawful path is to push lawmakers to amend it. Pressuring a judge to ignore it is not that path.

What Happens Next for the Convicted Kidnappers?

Nothing happens overnight. A senior lawyer has already warned that the governor cannot lawfully order an execution before the 90 days window for filing an appeal runs out. The appeal process can take years. Mercy, review and correction of error are all still available to the convicts.

Nigerians can feel for the convicts and still insist the law stands. Compassion belongs in the appeal courts, in the debate over mandatory sentencing, and in the prerogative of mercy, where the law has placed it.

What it cannot do is cancel a crime or weaken the only deterrent a frightened country has left.