An Overview of Armed Banditry in Northern Nigeria: A Case Study Of Zamfara State

Abstract

The paper examines armed banditry in Zamfara state. It also makes critical appraisal of the factors that led to the collapse of the peace deal entered in to between Zamfara state government and armed bandits. It also provides a historical background to the crises and incidences of armed banditry in zamfara state since 2011. The paper applies research methodology using secondary sources of data to enable the researcher capture facts from existing literatures. The researcher employs the use of Queer Ladder economic theory upon which the research is based on. The queer Ladder theory postulated by an American sociologist, Daniel Bell (1965), who coined that the functional significance of organized crime is as a desperate tactic for socio-economic empowerment and social climbing. The paper points out causes of armed banditry in Zamfara State to be Poverty, Illiteracy, and Unemployment, High quest of political power by the elites and under development of rural areas. The paper concludes that armed banditry in Zamfara State was as a result of the quest for economic satisfaction and social empowerment looking at the range of causes of this crimes as postulated by Bell's Queer Ladder theory.The paper also posits that banditry constitutes a serious threat to Nigeria's public safety and, by extension, national security.