By Boma West
Security researchers have documented a troubling pattern in Nigeria’s fight against armed groups. Bandit networks in the northwest and Boko Haram fighters in the northeast have both turned to women as arms couriers, counting on the fact that many security operatives hesitate to search them at checkpoints out of religious and cultural sensitivity.
Reports from groups tracking organised crime in the region describe women concealing rifles and ammunition under their veils, sometimes wrapping weapons or explosive devices to resemble a baby being carried on the back. One case from March 2022 stands out. Police in Plateau State arrested a woman moving firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition toward bandit camps in Kaduna, Katsina, and Zamfara. Investigators recovered several locally made guns alongside the seized ammunition.
Analysts note that armed groups deliberately exploit assumptions about women’s roles in crime. Security personnel rarely suspect women of running weapons for organised networks, and cultural norms around searching women mean many checkpoints simply wave them through. Boko Haram appears to have pioneered this method in the northeast, and bandit groups elsewhere in the country have since copied the approach.
This is not a question of religion causing crime. It is a question of criminals abusing the respect shown to a religious and cultural practice. People wearing hijabs or veils are, in the overwhelming majority of cases, ordinary women going about their lives. A small number of individuals connected to armed groups have chosen to exploit the discomfort security officers feel around searching them, turning a mark of faith into a shield for smuggling.
Framing this as a hijab problem misses the real issue entirely. Nigeria’s security services face a structural gap: too few female officers trained and positioned at checkpoints to conduct searches that male officers are reluctant or unable to carry out. Closing that gap, rather than treating every veiled woman with suspicion, is the actual fix.
Analysts recommend recruiting and deploying more female security and law enforcement agents specifically for checkpoint duty, so that searches can happen without cultural friction or accusations of disrespect. Intelligence-led policing also matters here. Communities themselves often know which individuals have been drawn into courier roles, and better relationships between security forces and local residents can surface that information long before a checkpoint stop becomes necessary.
Nigeria’s security agencies have shown they can adapt when a smuggling method becomes known. Customs and army units have intercepted large quantities of illegal arms and ammunition in recent months alone, often acting on tips rather than random searches. Applying that same intelligence-driven approach to the courier networks that use women, rather than reactive profiling at checkpoints, offers a more effective and fairer path forward.
Nobody should be allowed to hide behind faith to commit crimes, and no community of faith should be blamed for the actions of a criminal few. Nigeria’s security response needs to reflect that balance rather than collapse into one extreme or the other.
