Ondo attorney general backs state police to curb insecurity

Ondo State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Kayode Ajulo

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The Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in Ondo State, Kayode Ajulo SAN, has declared that the country needs state police to effectively tackle the country’s mounting security challenges.

PUNCH Online rreports that President Bola Tinubu recently called on the National Assembly to review existing laws to allow states to establish their own police forces as part of efforts to combat rising insecurity nationwide.

Tinubu, who declared a nationwide security emergency, said: “I call on the National Assembly to begin reviewing our laws to allow states that require state police to establish them.”

Ajulo, in a statement he personally issued on Thursday, said the current centralised policing system is no longer effective in addressing the diverse criminal activities across the federation.

He noted that Nigeria’s security challenges differ across regions—herder–farmer conflicts in the North, cultism in the South, kidnapping in the Middle Belt, and oil theft in the Niger Delta.

He said, “A centralised police force could not effectively tailor solutions to all, but the state police can.”

The state attorney-general added, “President Tinubu’s ‘innocuous insertion’ inviting National Assembly review of state police laws is no artifice; it’s an overdue gauntlet thrown to lawmakers to codify Amotekun’s virtues nationwide. It is pragmatic. It is constitutional, and it is a call to respond to a nation in distress.”

Calling on stakeholders to support the creation of state police, Ajulo cited the South West Security Network Agency, also known as Amotekun, as a successful example of decentralised policing. He said the system has drastically reduced criminal activities, particularly kidnapping, in the region.

He added, “In the face of this reality, state police is not a fad or a sleight of hand; it is an existential necessity for a federation suffocating under a one-size-fits-all approach. Nowhere does this truth shine brighter than in the quiet but powerful South West Security Network, Operation Amotekun—the South-West’s homegrown innovation that demonstrates how decentralised policing can function equally, transparently, and effectively.

“Enter Operation Amotekun: established in January 2020 and codified into our laws, the South-West Security Network stands as a distinguished example of how decentralised policing can function effectively within a framework of constitutional and democratic oversight. As the Attorney-General of Ondo State, I can affirm that Amotekun operates in full compliance with state law. My office has provided effective supervision of the Agency in Ondo State as prescribed.

“In 2025 alone, its border surge operations created a security ‘firewall’ across the South-West, disrupting infiltration by criminal cells through community-based intelligence that the centralised structure struggles to access at the same speed. These results are rooted not in brute force but in cultural fluency, localised intelligence, and accountability.

“Amotekun’s playbook is emphatic. The data is undeniable: by mid-2025, reported kidnappings in Ondo and Osun dropped by nearly 70 per cent, despite Amotekun operating without full access to arms and resources available to conventional federal agencies. No ethnic pogroms. No governor-driven repression. Just measurable wins.”

Ajulo commended the governors of the South-West for creating the regional security outfit and urged the National Assembly to legislate proactively on state police, describing it as the most effective way to address the nation’s security problems.

He specifically lauded Ondo State Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa for approving the recruitment of 500 men into the state Amotekun corps and inaugurating Amotekun’s Control Command Centre, which features drones, surveillance systems, intelligent mapping, and real-time citizen security reporting—demonstrating both scalability and modernisation.

“But this milestone is only one strand in a broader system of deliberate reforms and investments that have repositioned Ondo State as the pacesetter of subnational security governance in Nigeria. His recent approval of 500 new Amotekun recruits, the largest single expansion since the corps was created, reflects not just manpower strengthening but strategic foresight, ensuring that intelligence gathering, border patrols, forest surveillance, and rural rapid-response capabilities are scaled proportionately to modern threats.

“The governors in the South-West, with Amotekun, have shown that they can wield security as a shield, not a sword. Let the National Assembly act, or history will judge us not for our cautions, but for our cowardice. The people demand state police, not as an option, but as oxygen,” the commissioner concluded.

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