ABSTRACT

No doubt, small and large scale livestock production is a major contributor to the economy of Nigeria, outside it being a rich source of animal protein and leather (made from animal skin). Similarly, crop production has maintained its centrality in the sustenance of human population. The need to get these herds of cattle well fed has propelled pastoralists to seek for arable lands beyond their domains. These arable lands are all-most always owned and used for farming purposes. The encroachments by herders into the property and business premises of farmers, have often thrown opened a major source of resource-based conflict. The disposition, demands and violent activities of the herders have often spelt doom for not just the crops, environment but equally, the lives of farmers, their families and community members alike. These aggressive posture and violent occupation at once reveals the violent crime component of these recurrent conflicts between herders and farmers. Thus, the research aims to interrogate religious peacemaking in the violent conflicts between herders and farmers within the context of security and criminal justice administration. Exploratory research design was used with data drawn principally from secondary sources. Also, the peacemaking criminology framework was adopted. Climate change, migration and destruction of crops, cattle rustling and the availability of small arms and light weapons were the major causes of the conflict. Similarly, income and livelihood, property and human destruction, humanitarian challenges were some major effects of the conflict. While observing the religious dynamics in the identity of the primary conflict parties, this research concludes by recommending from a religion-based peacemaking perspective, sustainable panacea that could curb and restore the relationship between the hostile parties on the basis of their long established, though currently volatile, interaction and commonalities towards national development.