<p>The Nigerian state has gone through a number of spasms in the years preceding the return to democratic rule. The return to democratic rule over the last two decades did not bring about the much-needed succour for which the mass of the populace longed. The experience of the last three years (2020–2023) birthed yet a new spasm in the annals of country’s social relations. There have been armed robbery, organized crimes masterminded by non-state actors, insurgencies, extrajudicial killings, fear arising from marauders and persons under the influence of drugs and wild ambition to get illegitimate means of income, ambushing and maiming of law-abiding citizens, discord and violence of all descriptions. The spate, methodology, dynamics and trend of violence cum discomfitures stoked by armed groups plaguing various communities in the nation today have been disproportionate. This study, therefore, argues that the porous and poorly manned Nigerian borders have contributed, in the main, to the alarming rate of banditry occasioned in the last three years. This does not distract, though, from attributing the menace to poverty and/or poor governance, unbridled access to small arms and light weapons, drug abuse, unemployment, leadership ostentation, corruption, thievery, ineptitude, inter alia, the directions at which extant literature have looked. Doing so, the study employs qualitative method, in the main. It relies on extant literature, government documents, informed opinions of stakeholders/opinion moulders, news analysis, and researchers’ personal observations.</p>