Adequate attention tends not to have been given to the connection between socioeconomic development and security challenges in Nigeria. This study therefore, investigated Security Challenges and Socioeconomic Development in Niger State. The specific objectives included: to examine the effects of Boko Haram activities on infrastructural development, and to find out the effects of bandits activities on people’s job/businesses in Niger State. The study was anchored on the theory of organized crime. The survey design involving a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was adopted. Quantitative data were collected through questionnaire while the qualitative data were gathered through interview. The multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted to select respondents for the study. There were three hypotheses stated for the study. The sample size was 376 respondents while 24 interviews were conducted to generate the qualitative data. The quantitative data were processed using SPSS version 20.0 and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The QDA Miner software was used to analyze the qualitative data. The stated hypotheses were tested using chi-square statistic. The findings revealed that the drivers of banditry were poverty, unemployment, large swathes of forest reserves, thriving illegal mining activities. Again, banditry activities have led to the displacement of means of livelihood and shortage of food and have triggered an adverse socioeconomic crisis for the people. It was, therefore, recommended that the forests should be combed by the military personnel through an air raid in order to stop further attacks on infrastructural facilities, and the Nigeria porous borders should be blocked to prevent the influx of foreign criminal elements and bandits into the country as this will go a long way to open up business activities in the region and give the people the courage to embark on business trips without fear of being kidnapped or killed.