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

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.