The appalling nature of human rights abuses and the attendant violent conflicts in the Niger Delta during both military and democratic regimes in Nigeria have elicited several studies from scholars and international agencies. Although these studies made significant contributions towards understanding the challenges in the Niger Delta, the present researcher observed that adequate attention has not been given to the comparative study of the influence of human rights violation by different regimes on the scale of violent conflict in the region. With the aid of multi-method research approach this study attempts to contribute to existing knowledge about the Niger Delta by finding out the extent to which human rights violation in military and democratic regimes influenced conflict escalation. The study will also contribute to the debate in social science research on how human rights violation by a particular regime type influences the escalation of conflict.