The Impact of Peace deal in Mitigating Armed Banditry in Communities of Katsina State, Nigeria

Armed banditry continues to ravage communities in Katsina State affecting socioeconomic activities. This motivated the local communities and traditional institutions with indirect support from the government to sign peace deal with the bandits. The paper examines the impact of peace deal in mitigating armed banditry in communities of Katsina State, Nigeria. The paper adopted Co-operative Approach Theory (CAT). The study was conducted in Safana, Danmusa, Matazu, Faskari local government areas of Katsina State that signed peace deal with the armed bandits. Purposive sampling was adopted in drawing the participants across communities of Safana, Danmusa, Matazu, Faskari. The participants include: community leaders, youth organisations and informal security such as vigilante group and Katsina State Community Watch Corps (C-Watch). The study adopted qualitative technique using in-depth interviews as the source of data. For data analysis, analytical and interpretive discussion of the responses were carried out thematically. Findings of the study revealed that peace deal has impact on the community that singed the agreements with the bandits. But the bandits attack occasionally and kill members of the community. The study recommends that, Local and State government should empower the community leaders who are closer to the community on how to improve the peace deal. This will help in maintaining peace and development in the affected communities.