“…Most authors agree that political instability, religious manipulation, poverty, corruption, bad governance, high rate of unemployment, ethnic and religious divisions, favouritism, nepotism, marginalisation and tribalism in resource sharing and appointment to public office are key factors that contribute to the rise of insecurity in Nigeria (Alegbeleye 2014;Canci & Odukoya 2016;Livneh 2011;Momoh & Mai-lafia 2020;Onah, Diara & Uroko 2017;Osunyikanmi & Sapele 2019;Salawu 2010). Literature also shows that each state should provide adequate and efficient security that can react quickly to any escalation of crimes, integration of geospatial technology into security surveillance and operation, effective intelligence gathering and reconciliation, which are the key factors to bringing the aggrieved parties and groups to common terms and making them join forces with the government in achieving the common goal of the country to curb the challenges of insecurity (Akingbade et al 2022;Akingbade, Olabamiji & Ajala 2021;Iyekekpolo 2020;Oghuvbu 2021;Osunyikanmi & Sapele 2019;Shalangwa & Iwuamadi 2021). However, the literature on the effective use of religion as an influencing and social control mechanism remains scanty.…”