THE NATURE AND CONSEQUENCES OF ARMED BANDITRY IN BORDER COMMUNITIES OF ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA.
THE NATURE AND CONSEQUENCES OF ARMED BANDITRY IN BORDER COMMUNITIES OF ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA.
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Date
2013-04
Authors
MOSES, WAHIRA SHALANGWA
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Abstract
The study dwells on the current form of banditry in the northeastern part of Nigeria with
specific reference to the border communities of Adamawa State. Armed banditry involves
attacking people on the highways and even the raiding of villages. These acts ofbanditry
result in injury, loss of human lives,loss of property and a sustainedfear of victimization
among the border communities. The study set out to find the nature, pattern and
consequences of armed banditry in the border communities. Data were collected using a
survey while in-depth interviews were conducted with selected border community
leaders, Police Officers and some victims of armed banditry. The quantitative data were
analysed descriptively using frequencies while the qualitative data were transcribed and
used to support the quantitative data. The findings indicated that, armed banditry can be
attributed to a number of factors among which are the influx of ex-combatants from
Nigeria’s neighbouring war torn countries, especially Chad, Niger and Cameroon,
unemployment among youths and easy availability of arms. The findings on the nature,
pattern and consequences of armed banditry indicated that the armed bandits attack
people on the highways with military type weapons, and violently dispossess victims of
their money/valuables and escape into the hills and forests. The armed bandits are
generally known as “Kwanta-Kwanta”. They operate in groups of between 10 and 25
persons who are usually between the ages of 28 and 45 years. They speak Hausa or
Fulfulde language. Armed banditry was found to have had impact on the socio-economic
lives of the people such as disruption of commercial activities, disruption of social
activities like festivals and school attendance, negative impact on the supply and delivery
of basic amenities and the psychological trauma suffered by residents, victims and
relatives of victims of armed banditry. There is a failure on the part of law enforcement
agencies towards controlling and preventing incidents of armed banditry. The challenges
the law enforcement agencies face in this regard include inadequate funding, inadequate
training and equipment, political interference, poor welfare package, poor quality of
human and personnel resources, and the absence of a comprehensive crime
prevention/control policy It is therefore recommended that control and prevention of acts
of armed banditry requires a holistic approach involving all stakeholders adopting long
and short term measures which includes Inter-Country cooperation towards the
prevention and control of armed banditry, effective institutional coordination among
specialized agencies in view of the multi-dimensional nature of state interest in border
security, government recognition of vigilante groups, and adequate funding, training and
equipping of law enforcement agents.
Description
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF
POSTGRADUATE STUDIES, AHMADU BELLO
UNIVERSITY, ZARIA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF A
MASTER DEGREE IN SOCIOLOGY.
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY,
ZARIA, NIGERIA.
APRIL, 2013
Keywords
NATURE,, CONSEQUENCES,, ARMED BANDITRY,, BORDER COMMUNITIES,, ADAMAWA STATE,, NIGERIA.