BANDITRY AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA: 2015-2021

The study was set to solve the problem of insecurity, particularly banditry as the crime emerged at the most critical time in the history of Nigeria and has become an uphill task for the government to tackle for the safety of lives and property of Nigerians. To solve this problem, this research has set the objective to examine the effect of banditry on agricultural production in Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted, while human needs theory was employed in the study. The population of the study was 1300, and with a sample size of 306. Data collected were from primary and secondary sources and analyzed statistically using simple percentage tables and chi-square computations. The finding revealed that the effect of banditry on agricultural production in Nigeria is negative. In order to stem the tide, if not to completely exterminate bandits from farmlands in Nigeria, especially in the northern part of the country, the study recommended that government should employ proactive measures based on international best practices, like training and retraining of officers, overhauling and equipping of the military forces with world-class ammunitions, deployment and redeployment of officers from their military base, etc.