Geospatial Assesment of Trends and Patterns of Terrorism in Nigeria from 2010 To 2015

Terrorism in Nigeria has cost the loss of lives of thousands of Nigerian Citizens in the last five years. The
war on terrorism have resulted in the loss of lives of innocent citizens as well as military personnels, not to
mention the death of the terrorist perpetrating the evil acts, through suicide bombings and planned attacks.
These loss of lives could have been prevented or reduced, if the necessary measures, infrastructures and
policies were put in place. It is to this effect that this paper examines the potential advantages of adopting
geoinformatics and specifically geographically-referenced information technology as a tool for combating
terrorism in Nigeria. The research work looks at the history of terrorism in the country to predict future
trends, and look at ways of fortifying areas of targets of terrorists’ attacks in other to save lives of innocent
citizens. Data about the terrorists’ incidents that occurred within January, 2010 to November, 2015 were
collected. Thematic maps and graphs emphasizing the distribution and frequency of terrorists’ incidents in
Nigeria within the period in review was produced. Recommendations were made on the policies, reforms,
equipment and training of security personnel and harmonization of security operation with geoinformatics
technology.