Rural Banditry and Economic Crimes: Exploring the Perceptions of Male Pastoralists’ Lived Experience in Kwara State, North-Central Nigeria

Abstract

Armed banditry and insurgency are among the principal insecurity challenges in present-day Nigeria. This study investigated the lived experience of male pastoralists on rural banditry and associated economic crimes in Kwara State, north-central Nigeria to fill identified gaps in the literature. A sample of 20 pastoralists’ hamlets was selected for the study. Data were collected through focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. Data analysis showed that study participants were aware of the problem of rural banditry. Major banditry-related economic crimes reported by participants were robbery and burglary, livestock rustling, farmers-herders conflicts with attendant destruction of pastoralists’ assets, among others. Through facilitation by pairwise ranking exercise within focus group sessions, study participants identified livestock rustling as the most important banditry-related economic crime. Participants carried out social profiling of livestock rustlers. Results further suggested that the key factors influencing livestock rustling were economic deprivations and social dislocation in Nigerian society, criminal networks on livestock rustling and illegal trading on rustled livestock, and access to light weapons by the livestock rustlers, among others. Participants reported the immediate and long-term effects of livestock rustling on the crime victims and their communities. The study recommends the rollout of the government-planned National Animal Identification and Traceability System, the enactment of state law that would prohibit indiscriminate livestock transportation and, the creation of a local security system to complement the state-based policing system to reduce armed banditry and livestock rustling among the study population.