BY SAM OTUONYE
Security experts and stakeholders have sounded a loud alert over the hydra-headed streak of insecurity in Nigeria, advising that government at all levels deploy integrated strategies and approaches towards combating it.
This was highlighted on Thursday June 4, 2026, in the Conference hall of Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) Abuja, at a High-level Dialogue titled, Banditry -Terror Nexus: Criminal Economies and the Future of Violence in Nigeria.
The Dialogue, which was organised by CLEEN Foundation, with the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), and Friedrich Ebert-Stiftung (FES), brought together security consultants, the Military, Police, Civil Defence, Directorate of Security Service (DSS), Customs, Correctional Service, the academia, and foreign partners, to dissect the crisis and recommend practicable and sustainable solutions.
The gathering agreed on the overwhelming dimensions of insecurity in Nigeria, opining that it is no longer defined by isolated threats. They said that banditry, terrorism, and criminal economies have fused into a dangerous ecosystem of violence powered by kidnapping, illegal mining, arms trafficking, and organized crime, noting that across the North-East, and North-Central regions, this evolving nexus is weakening state authority, destabilizing communities, and reshaping the national security landscape.
The Dialogue posited that as criminal and extremist networks become more adaptive and economically entrenched, the challenge before policy makers is no longer only how to defeat armed groups, but how to dismantle the systems that sustain them.
Baring his mind on the issue, the Resident Representative, FES Nigeria, Mr Lennart Oestergaard, said that Nigeria’s security challenges have evolved into a dangerous hybrid, noting that it is always confusing when an attack occurs to know which group is responsible, whether it is Boko Haram, ISWAP, or bandits. “For me it is quite difficult to distinguish.”
In his remarks, the Executive Director, CLEEN Foundation, Mr Peter Maduoma, said that the Dialogue was timely given the hardship and uncertainty insecurity has unleashed on Nigerians.
“Today’s conversation therefore could not be more timely considering the present hardship insecurity has brought
on the Nigerian citizens and creating a future of great uncertainty.”
On his part, the Director General of IPCR, Dr Joseph Ochogwu, assured the Stakeholders that the recommendations from the Dialogue will get to appropriate decision making corridors for possible implementation.
“The one thing I can assure you is that the end product of what we have here in terms of the recommendations and the output and all that, we will still disseminate to all the respective agencies, ministry departments, and all our friends in the room that are within the hierarchy of power. And it is our utmost prayer that our research will inform policy and policy will change practices.”
Delivering a paper on: The Banditry-Terrorism Nexus: Implications for National Security Strategy and Counterterrorism Policy, by the Managing Director, Beacon Security and Intelligence, Dr Kabiru Adamu, identified sources of funding of banditry to include mining, taxation, collection of dues, and the digital currency.
He delved into the analytical understanding of how transnational criminal economies, including illegal mining, kidnapping for ransom and arms trafficking reinforce and sustain organized violence in Nigeria, interrogating the crime-terror nexus, beyond simplified narratives, while examining the true nature and limits of interaction between bandit networks and jihadist organizations.
Other keynote presentations were taken by Professors Tunji Ogunyemi, Etannibi Alemika, and Barrister Gloria Ballosin of House of Justice, Kaduna.
