No abstract

Although there are several provisions within the Nigerian legal framework that, however, address the issue of church attack, the state capacity to implement effective constitutional sanctioning on perpetrators of this heinous crime has always been found wanting or completely absent, leading to countless religious attacks on churches with seeming state consent. This study employs semi-structured interviews to draw data from affected families from Benue and Enugu States, Nigeria. The article explored their experiences. The study participants were recruited through snowball sampling technique, and data were analysed thematically. The respondents stated that church killings or killing of Christians is rising because of the fact that perpetrators stand lower risk of detection and apprehension than other crimes. Also respondents interrogated that justification for the crime is land acquisition and religious intolerance. On the persistence of the challenge, all the 13 respondents stated that the crime seems to have state approval that has made it seemly impossible to tackle. The article calls for continuous inter-religious dialogue and intentional governmental responsibility in protecting lives of all persons living within the geographical enclave of Nigeria which is necessary for the common good. Closer understanding of other faiths and religions will help build bridges of peace and tolerance. The article also calls for the need to promote African traditional values, such as the value of sacredness of life, human respect and good neighbourliness.Contribution: This study initiated the discussions that will help the public understand the reason for continuous church attacks in Nigeria, what church crime connotes in the Nigerian context and its uniqueness from other crimes. These discussions sit quite well within the transdisciplinary religious perspective of this journal.

This study looks at how using special courts can provide succor to the plight of awaiting trial inmates in Ebonyi state, Nigeria. The study adopted quantitative and qualitative research methods, with a sample of 1,498 respondents comprising 617 police officers, 623 awaiting-trial inmates, 113 court staff, and 145 prison officers drawn from Ebonyi State. Purposive and Multi-stage sampling techniques were used to reach the respondents. The quantitative data was descriptively analyzed using percentages and charts, while a thematic method of analysis was employed in the qualitative data. The findings revealed that, while there has been an uptick in awaiting trial problems, there is no meaningful provision to address them, despite the existence of provisions within the Nigerian legal framework. The article calls for the creation of special courts that are equipped to address peculiar crime cases in a more effective and faster manner. These courts are better poised to address the peculiarities of special cases and pass better and faster judgments.

The development of technology creates opportunities for businesses, seamless communications and leisure activities to thrive. However, it also propels crime. In Nigeria, cyber threat continues to evolve rapidly with rising number of victims on daily bases. This necessitated the present study that examines the shock absorption mechanism of the cybercrime victims in Nigeria. The data for this study came from a variety of sources, including books, articles, essays, tabloids, and journal publications; a content analysis approach was used to evaluate the data and present using certain words, themes, concepts, or codifications. The study found that the peculiarity of cybercrime lies in the fact that the victims willingly land themselves into it without being forced to do so. It starts with what seem to be a friendly conversation and exchange of correspondences and pleasantries which turns into a scamming spree. To this end, victims are left battered and shattered, and could act irrationally against own-self before state actors set out to track the offender(s). Thus, victims of cybercrime could absorb shock by spending quality time with significant others. This enables them feel the love and moral supports from close associates, other than wallow in loneliness and isolation which can breed unpleasant stimuli.