Highway informal policing in Kajola Local Government, Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Informal policing continues to play a crucial role in the Nigerian security sector in spite of the fact that certain government agencies have been formally charged with the responsibility for crime prevention, detection and control. In view of this, this paper examines the origin, mode of operation and challenges of highway informal policing in Kajola Local Government. The study was anchored on routine activity theory. Data were principally generated through key informant interview and focus group discussion methods. Purposive sampling technique was adopted for the selection of 11 members of the local government's highway informal police, while 28 participants involved in the focus group discussions were chosen through quota sampling. Findings showed that the highway informal policing outfit was mainly established to contain the incessant criminal victimisations of commuters travelling on the major highways in the area by armed robbers. Also, members of the outfit viewed their relationship with personnel of the Nigeria Police Force as cordial. This paper calls for a design of necessary mechanisms through which a successful integration of highway informal policing into the operation of the Nigeria Police Force can be facilitated as a way of securing crime-prone highways in Nigeria.

Insecurity and counter-banditry strategies of the affected communities in Oyo State, Nigeria

“…A major implication of this result is that the existence of these challenges may make it very difficult for the affected communities to totally eliminate the occurrence of banditry within their localities because these situations are directly and indirectly aiding the activities of individuals engaging in acts constituting criminal victimisation. This output is in tandem with Ojedokun and Aderinto’s (2015) study which found the major challenges confronting some informal policing outfits that were securing the major inter-community highways in some rural localities in Oyo State as including inadequate access to weapons, poor funding and lack of access to some vital work-equipment. It also confirms the submission of SCP theory that society plays a role in inadvertently creating a crime through the manufacturing of “criminogenic goods”, through leaky systems and through poor management/design of facilities which consequently lead to the reduction of the risk and efforts that are necessary for crime perpetration while also simultaneously increasing the rewards that are associated with it.…”

The Innovative concept and Issues Concerning the Non-Custodial Sentence in Nigerian Criminal Justice System

“…Parole is the release of a prisoner from imprisonment before the full sentence is served by the parolee, on the grounds of good behavior Oromareghake, 2018). It is a period of discretionary/ conditional supervised release from prison (Ojedokun and Aderino, 2015). The parole system as a non-custodial measure can be traced to the 20 th century when indeterminate sentencing dominated the American jurisprudence (Ladapo, 2011).…”