Abstract:
The search light of this research is beamed on the increasing wave of violent crime in Abia
State. The intentness is to highlight and underscore the role of the church as a fundamental
institution for inculcating principles and virtues of proper moral conduct as well as foremost
agent of social welfare and human development. This has been done by approaching the
research in an objective and orderly systematic manner. In fashioning the approach, primary
and secondary sources of data collection and observational technique were mostly explored in
an analytical manner for circumspection and objectivity. The findings have laid bare the fact
that the most devastating social problem challenging peace, security and human development
in Abia is the increasing wave of violent crime, which assumed terrifying and horrifying
dimensions in 2009, when kidnapping was added to crime equation in the state. And the
violent crime epidemic has a lot to do with the living conditions of the people, waning and
wobbling moral and ethical system, general inefficient and ineffective leadership. This
research will therefore, provide valuable information with regard to the role of the church in
the face of these criminal activities. It will provoke and ginger the church to stand to its toes,
synergize and assist the state in administering adequate dose of liberation from the menace. It
will provide insight for imperative paradigm shift that will assure a quantum leap for the
people. This is because no society can really make its economic and political headways, when
the ingredients of peace, harmony and social development are conspicuously lacking as
witnessed in Abia. No doubt peace is the sin-qua-non to meaningful development.
