A GIS-BASED ASSESSMENT OF SMUGGLING ACTIVITIES AT IDI-IROKO BORDER, OGUN STATE

Abstract

Smuggling activities in Nigeria has posed security threat at the national border for decades. Idi- Iroko border in Ogun State is porous in nature, with many entries and exist points, thereby making it difficult to police. There is need for spatial information on crime wave, illegal trades, smuggling entry and exist points that constitute economic problems. This study seeks to explore the potentials of GIS of effective border control against smuggling activities in Idi – Iroko. Landsat (OLI-2014), SPOT (2005& 2012) and Google Earth images were used in the study. Primary data used are field GPS coordinate and people’s perception sourced through questionnaire administration. The base map, route map SPOT imagery were used to extract smuggler trail through on screen digitizing. Land used / land cover (LULC) analysis was conducted to understand the nature of anthropogenic activities in the area by subjecting that acquired Landsat data to supervised image classification in ENVI software environment. The pattern and smuggling activities was derived using Kernel density analysis in ARCGIS 10.3 environment. The kernel density component of the study analysis the density of the custom checkpoint and the density of blind spot (illegal links in which smuggler uses to penetrate the border). The effectiveness of current checkpoint were determined using network analysis consisting of optimal path finding and service area operations. Result of LULC analysis of the 2014 Landsat data shows that bare surface occupies 5.089%, vegetation covers (87.86%) and built 7.046% of the investigated area. The analysis of 2005 and 2012 SPOT images reveals a total of 17 smuggler trends and 17 blind spots in 2005. In 2012, however, the number of smuggler trails increased to 28, equally with blind spot. It was observed, that the trails were trending towards the North, which indicates rapid smuggling activities and low security apparatus to curtail them. The smuggling trails also increase from 28- 38 (2012-2014).Most of vi the trails were seen to pass through small communities along the border. It is believed that the smugglers have accomplices in these communities. Finding of kernel density estimation shows that the blind spots are heavily clustered along the border. The map generated the checkpoints kernel density provided better perspective on the active illegal border crossing areas. The result of the pattern of blind spot and checkpoint is was observed to be greater than 1, this imply that the trend is a dispersed distribution. A Z-score value and significance level of 21.9 and 0.01 were observed respectively. This effort recommend that for optimum monitoring border activities, further work should focus on both the Idi- Iroko border and the assessment should be with high resolution image.