Cross Border Crimes and Socio-economic Development of ECOWAS States (A Case Study of Magama Jibia Border, Katsina -Nigeria)
Chapter One
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main objective of the study is to examine cross border crimes and the socio-economic development of ECOWAS member states. Specific objectives of the study are:
- To identify various cross border crimes perpetuated in ECOWAS member states.
- To examine the challenges posed by cross border crimes and how these challenges affect the socio-economic growth of Nigeria in particular and other ECOWAS member states.
- To appraise the effectiveness of various machineries put in ground by the government to curb cross border crimes.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
NATURE AND MEANING OF CROSS BORDER CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES
The nature of cross-border crime has changed rapidly over recent years through the use of technology, networks, the loosening of travel restrictions and through criminal diversification. Crime networks are complex and to break them is a massive task for police forces worldwide. This is in part due to the fact that the heads of these organisations have powerful connections, and their wealth enables them to bribe officials. Transnational crimes are crimes that have actual or potential effect across national borders and crimes which are intra-State but which offend fundamental values of the international community (Boister, 2003). In recent times the term is commonly used in the law enforcement agencies and academic communities. The word “transnational” describes crimes that are not only international (that is, crimes that cross borders between countries), but crimes that by their nature involve cross-border transference as an essential part of the criminal activity. Transnational crimes also include crimes that take place in one country, but their consequences significantly affect another country and transit countries may also be involved. Examples of transnational crimes include: human trafficking, people smuggling, smuggling/trafficking of goods (such as arms trafficking and drug trafficking and illegal animal and plant products and other goods prohibited on environmental grounds (e.g. banned ozone depleting substances), sex slavery, terrorism offences, torture and apartheid. Transnational organized crime (TOC) refers specifically to transnational crime carried out by organized crime organizations. Transnational crimes may also be crimes of customary international law or international crimes when committed in certain circumstances. For example they may in certain situations constitute crimes against humanity. According to the UNODC, “Transnational crime by definition involves people in more than one country maintaining a system of operation and communication that is effective enough to perform criminal transactions, sometimes repeatedly” (UNODC Report2005:14). While it may be true that the fragility of states in West Africa and the weakness of state institutions mandated to combat the drug menace has contributed to the upsurge of TOC in recent times, the complicity, active or passive, of state officials in the region and outside, cannot be ruled out. For example, the January 2004 arrest of an international smuggling gang in Ghana that had imported 675 kilograms of cocaine, with a street value estimated at USD 140 million, led to the suspects being released on bail of just USD 200,000, causing a public outcry in the press (Aning, 2007).
The task of defining or describing “trans-border crime” would not be an easy one, because many elements have been recognized as constituting it. However, “trans-border crime” represents a number of illegal and notorious activities carried out by individuals and groups across national and international borders, either for financial or economic benefits and also sociopolitical cum religious considerations. It is a set of criminal acts whose perpetrators and repercussions go beyond territorial borders. These would include human trafficking, money laundering, drug trafficking, arms smuggling or trafficking of weapons, cross-border terrorism, illegal oil bunkering, illicit trafficking in diamonds, corruption, business fraud, to mention but these notable few (Asiwaju, 1992, Ering, 2011,). Money laundering is the practice of engaging in financial transactions to conceal the identity, source, or destination of illegally gained money. It could also be defined as the process of taking any action with property of any form which is either wholly or in part the proceeds of a crime that will disguise the fact that that property is the proceeds of a crime or obscure the beneficial ownership of said property (Ering, 2011, Boister, 2003). In the past, the term money laundering was applied only to financial transactions related to organized crime. Today, its definition has been expanded by government and international regulators such as the “US office of the controller of the Currency” to mean” any financial transaction which generates an asset or a value as the result of an illegal act”, which may involve actions such as “tax evasion” or “false accounting”. In some countries, the concept is broader than the involvement of money to include “any economic good” and other transactions. Money laundering is ipso facto illegal, the acts generating the money almost are themselves criminal in some way (for if not, the money would not need to be laundered) (Addo, 2006, Park, 2006, Ering, 2011).
Historically, money laundering evolved in 1931 when many methods were devised to disguise the origins of money generated by the sale of illegal alcohol. During this period All Capone’s was convicted for tax evasion, mobster Meyer Lansky transferred funds from Florida “Carpet Joints” to accounts overseas. After the 1934 Swiss Banking Act, which created the principle of bank secrecy, Lansky bought a Swiss Bank into which they could transfer his illegal funds through a complex system of “Shell Companies”, holding companies, and “offshore bank” accounts (Ering, 2011, Addo, 2006). Drug trafficking, on the other hand, typically refers to the possession of an illegal drug in a predetermined quantity that constitutes the drug that is going to be sold. Legally, the US defines drug trafficking as “an offense under federal, state, or local law that prohibits the manufacture, import, export, distribution or dispensing of a controlled substance (or a counterfeit substance) or the possession of a controlled substance (or a counterfeit substance) with intent to manufacture, import, export, distribute or dispense (Addo, 2006, Ering, 2011, Passas, 2002).
CHAPTER THREE
BACKGROUND TO CROSS BORDER CRIMES IN NIGERIA AND WEST AFRICAN SUB-REGION
There is increasing concern about cross border crime and its implications for the international community. A variety of explanations have been put forward for its increase. In this era of so called globalisation, it is suggested that the incentives for cross border crime have increased, as criminals have identified the opportunities to gain greater rewards from criminal activity outside their traditional boundaries. These cross-border crimes are mostly symptomatic rather than as causes of instability in the region. The higher levels of disposable income in Western Europe and North America create a marketing opportunity for the illicit trade of the rest of the world. This is not limited to the trade in drugs but extends to almost all criminal currency; prostitution, pornography, protection and counterfeiting (Van, 2002, Julins, 2002).
However the flow of criminal trade is not all one way. The more developed countries export crime as well as import it. Corruption is an example of a crime exported from more developed countries to those that are vulnerable in the rest of the world. Citizens and corporations from the most developed nations would head any worldwide most wanted list. The 2004 UN Secretary-General’s Report on ways to combat sub- regional and cross border crimes in West Africa identified major cross-border problems including the continued weakening of the security sector, proliferation of roadblocks, youth unemployment, environmental degradation, social exclusion, explosive remnants of war (ERW), mass refugee movements and forced displacement. Inequitable and illicit exploitation of natural resources, weak national institutions and civil society structures and violations of human rights, including the rights of women, were also identified as other serious problems afflicting the sub-region (de Andrés, 2008, Boister, 2003, Mueller, 2001). Cross- border crimes in West Africa have been in existence since the 1970s. Initially, they were manifested in the form of individuals or groups of traders and businessmen and women smuggling goods across the borders. These activities eventually assumed alarming proportions when human trafficking, for the purposes of domestic slavery and illegal sexual activities, accompanied such activities as the peddling of narcotics and car-jacking among other things by transnational syndicates (de Andrés, 2008). The outbreak of intra-state conflicts in West Africa, beginning with Liberia in 1989, added mercenaries, small arms trafficking and the recruitment of child soldiers and fighters to the cross-border crimes.
CHAPTER FOUR
TRANS-BORDER CRIMES IN WEST AFRICA SUB-REGION AND NIGERIA’S NATIONAL SECURITY
As it is in sea piracy, so it is in the area of trafficking of children and women where the increasing desperation to leave Nigeria, to secure higher living standard, has put Libya and Morocco under severe trans-border security threats by young Nigerians, especially of Edo stock (Garuba, 2010, Julins, 2002). This is also the context in which an extensive web of international commercial fraud otherwise known as ‘419’, found expression in the country. Owing its popularity to the worsening economic crisis that reached the beginning of a climax in the 1980s, ‘419’ takes its name from Nigeria’s criminal code on fraud. It is difficult to ascribe a specific stereotype mode of operation to the dozens of small groups and independent operators involved in the ‘business’ that has expanded into internet scam, as their activities do not only take a variety of guises ranging from “seemingly legitimate business solicitations” to “illicit proposition for collusion in money-laundering.”
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Summary
We started by dwelling on all the technically in this paper, where we posed four research questions, stated four specific objectives, and four research hypotheses. We, also, demonstrated the theoretical and empirical relevance or justifications of this study. The issues, time frame and subjects covered by the study were also highlighted. The main concepts or terms used in this paper were operationalized or defined as they are applied or used in this study. In this paper we reviewed the related extent and relevant literature concerning definition and meanings of cross border criminal activities and issues and perspectives of trans-border criminal activities in Nigeria, West Africa, Africa and globe. Still in we also adopted a combination of the theory of relative autonomy of the state and failed state theory as our theoretical or conceptual framework. We discussed background to cross border crimes in Nigeria and West African sub-region, and as well examined the relationship between trans-border crimes in West Africa sub-region and Nigeria’s national security. Whilst, we discussed porous borders, ungoverned space and cases of transnational crimes in Nigeria and West Africa, and also examined the nexus between the frequent cross border criminal activities in West Africa and Nigeria’s external relations. Finally we summarized the entire work and drew some conclusions on the basis of which we made some recommendations.
Conclusions
From the foregoing, we reached the following conclusions:
- That the spate of cross border criminal activities in West Africa undermines Nigeria’s national security.
- That frequent trans-border crimes in West African sub-region impede Nigeria’s external relations.
Recommendations
In the course of this study, we suggest the following recommendations:
- Reconstitute the Nigerian state in such a way as to be proactive in dealing with the rampant cross border criminal activities that undermine its national security.
- Strengthen the cross-border law enforcement agencies in order to enable them check the frequent trans-border crimes that impede its external relations.
- Meaningful engagement of other West African states through both bilateral instruments and multilateral sub-regional organizations like ECOWAS to mitigate cross border crimes in West African sub- region.
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