TERRORISM: A CASE OF BOKO HARAM /ISLAMIC STATE OF WEST AFRICAN PROVINCE

Abstract

The act of terrorism appears to be everyday occurrence in Nigeria for over two decades now culminating in several lives and property being destroyed owing to the attacks by the Boko haram/ ISWAP in Nigeria.  Many homes have been destroyed and deserted and millions of displaced civilians in the affected areas have become internally displaced. In keeping with her obligation under the International Law to prevent and prohibit terrorism, Nigeria enacted the Terrorism Act 2011, the Terrorism Act 2013 as well as some sections in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act 2004 dealing on terrorism. To further strengthen the law on terrorism in Nigeria to be with the international standard, the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 was enacted.  The core focus of this paper is to examine/investigate the activities of Boko Haram/ ISWAP in Nigeria vi-a-vis the 2022 Terrorism Act to find out whether their activities contravened the provisions of the Act as to deserve punishment/sanction. This paper made use of primary and secondary data as well as the doctrinal method. The paper copiously demonstrated that the Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists have committed serious acts of terrorism via violent killings, intimidation, instilling fear on the people and government of Nigeria, hijacking, kidnapping, enslavement, sacking of villages, churches, mosques, schools, correctional centers etc, pursuant to a predetermined ideology/policy, the Islamization of Nigeria. The Federal Government appears to lack the political will to deal with the terrorists, hence the resort to paying them ransome and the policy of amnesty giving to them under the guise of re-habilitation. It is recommended that the Nigerian Government and the International Community need to cut off the sources of contact of Boko Haram with regard to financing and training them.