The headlines have become painfully familiar: another abduction, another ransom demand, another community thrown into mourning. Across Nigeria, insecurity has steadily eroded public confidence in the state’s ability to protect lives and property. At a time when kidnapping has become one of the defining features of life in Nigeria and fear increasingly dictates when, where and how people travel, every successful rescue operation offers more than relief, it restores a measure of public confidence. That is why the latest success recorded by the Oriire Rescue Operation resonates nationwide. It demonstrates what is possible when intelligence, local collaboration and swift action converge.

Yet, beyond the celebration lies a sobering question: why do such victories remain exceptions in a South-West where communities continue to live under the shadow of kidnappers, bandits and armed criminals despite an expanding network of regional security outfits?

Indeed, the fear of bandits, terrorists, kidnappers and criminals is the beginning of wisdom for many who now have to think twice before travelling.

Only recently, between five to seven gunmen suspected to be bandits, heavily armed, invaded the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) Eda Oniyo, Ilejemeje Council, during an open-air revival/all-night prayer programme held on the outskirts of town. They killed a pastor and abducted 15 worshippers. The captives were released after spending about 67 days in captivity.

Recall that kidnapping and armed attacks had occurred in the Emure-Ekiti corridors where five pupils, three teachers, and driver were kidnapped. Same period, two monarchs were murdered along Ipao-Oke Ako Road in Ikole council.

About the same time, over 40 schoolchildren and teachers were abducted in Oriire area of Oyo State for 56 days before the relief came through coordinated efforts of security forces.

Lately, the preponderance of abductions and kidnappings, especially in the South West has become issue of concern given the region’s multiplicity of security outfits such as Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN), the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN), codenamed Operation Amotekun, Ogun State Community, Social Orientation, and Safety Corps (So-Safe Corps), and the Lagos State Neighbourhood Security Corps (LNSC) and others.

Established in 2020 by the six governors of the region, the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN), codenamed Operation Amotekun, had emerged amid concerns that federal security agencies lacked the manpower, local intelligence and territorial knowledge needed to police forests, highways and remote communities vulnerable to criminal attacks.

Why The Security Outfits In Southwest Are On Flight Mode?

SUNDAY Durowade, a transporter, said from what he could deduce, it appears that the six Southern governors that came together to form the security outfit are not perfectly united with the Lagos State government not showing interest any more.

“Amotekun is ill-equipped as opposed to the insurgents who are armed with sophisticated weapons. Being ill-equipped will make them ineffective. I believe the outfit was formed to render support for the police but they are not equipped like the police.

“Many of the members today are children of hunters and it is embarrassing to see some of them carrying dane guns, which can only be fed with one bullet unlike the insurgents that have rolls of bullets around their neck.

“They lack utility vehicles and where the vehicles have not gone moribund, the ones provided are in the possession of their leaders. Many of them do not earn a salary, hence some just make it part time job with the hope that one day, the government would do the needful.

“Some are okada riders who take out time to be members doing it as a voluntary job. It is an eyesore to see some of them begging for money from transporters by opting to repair damaged spots on the road for money.

“The truth is that they are more reliable than the police because any time they are alerted for any problem, they run there immediately unlike the police that would come up with excuses that their vehicles do not have fuel or that they have not received orders from their boss to proceed to the point of the incident,” Durowade noted.

Oyo children“My advice is that the Lagos State government should wake up and play an effective role because the time we are in now, there is the need for collective effort to combat the invaders. We have too many okada riders in Lagos who need close monitoring as we no longer know who is who. Police alone cannot do it.”

Also speaking, Lagos State Commander of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria, Oguntunde Sesan, said the organisation continues to support security operations across Lagos and other South-West states through community patrols and intelligence gathering.

According to him, the group maintains a presence across local government areas and local council development areas in the region. “We cover all the local governments and local council development areas in the South-West. We are ready to work and we are committed to protecting our communities,” he said.

Sesan said vigilante members regularly patrol communities, including Badagry and Ikorodu, responding to information received from residents.

He, however, maintained that criminal groups also benefit from information supplied by people within communities. “Insecurity is not because we are not working. The problem is that these bandits get information from people within the communities. They have informants who tell them what is happening,” Sesan said.

According to him, timely information from members of the public remains one of the most important tools available to community security groups. He said the Vigilante Group works closely with the Nigeria Police Force, adding that members receive training from the police and carry out joint operations whenever necessary.

Sesan explained that the partnership enables vigilante operatives to coordinate their activities with police divisions across Lagos State.

To make the organisation more accessible to members of the public, he said he announces his telephone number on Bond FM every Tuesday, encouraging residents to contact him whenever they observe suspicious movements or security threats. “My phone number is announced on the radio every Tuesday. If anything happens anywhere, people call me directly. If I cannot go there myself, my officers will go because we have members across the local government areas,” he said.

Despite the group’s activities, Sesan said operational challenges continue to affect its work. According to him, members do not receive salaries and often rely on personal resources while responding to security emergencies. “We do all this work without pay,” he said.

He acknowledged that the Lagos State government recently organised a two-day security seminar for uniformed personnel, including members of the Vigilante Group, but said more support is needed.

Sesan identified patrol vehicles, motorcycles and logistics as some of the group’s most pressing needs. “We need patrol vehicles, motorcycles, logistics and salaries. We have families to take care of, and we cannot continue working for many days without support,” he said.

He added that most times, members use their own resources to move around communities while responding to distress calls. According to him, increased government support would improve the group’s ability to respond quickly whenever security incidents occur.

The Commander of the Ondo State Security Network, otherwise known as the Amotekun Corps, Adetunji Adeleye, who also chairs the South-West Amotekun Commanders Forum, said regardless of the challenges of inadequate resources such as inadequate funding, limited manpower, insufficient logistics, and constitutional restrictions that bar operatives from carrying sophisticated firearms, the corps is far from inactive.

Adeleye disclosed that the Ondo command alone has arrested and prosecuted more than 500 suspected criminals in 2026, with several convicts currently serving jail terms.

According to him, in a major operation within the last fortnight, the corps paraded 97 suspects arrested across the state’s 18 local council areas for offenses ranging from kidnapping and armed robbery to vehicle theft and violations of the anti-open grazing law.

Among those apprehended were suspected informants and logistics suppliers to criminal gangs operating in forests, as well as individuals who allegedly disguised themselves as mentally ill persons to gather intelligence for kidnappers.

In another coordinated operation, Amotekun operatives rescued 10 kidnap victims, including a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God and a teacher, from forest hideouts in Akure North Local Government Area without paying the N30 million ransom demanded by the abductors. The rescue followed a gun battle that forced the criminals to flee.

“The swiftness with which we act is one of the major reasons we have the confidence of the people. We gather information and process it and then act on it,” the Amotekun boss stated.

He also raised an alarm over what he described as a coordinated movement of people from northern Nigeria into forest communities in the state, warning that the influx posed a serious security threat.

Security experts have said that while the Oyo State Security Network Agency, codenamed Amotekun Corps has become an indispensable component of Oyo State’s security architecture because of its grassroots presence and local intelligence network, its long-term success will depend on sustained government funding, continuous training, improved equipment and stronger collaboration with federal security agencies within the limits of its legal mandate.

Amotekun corps have continued to play a significant role in tackling insecurity through community-based policing and intelligence gathering, but security experts say its effectiveness remains constrained by legal limitations, inadequate access to sophisticated firearms and operational challenges.

Security analysts, however, maintain that Amotekun was established to complement, not replace, the Nigeria Police Force and the military, noting that serious criminal investigations and prosecutions remain the constitutional responsibility of federal security agencies.

They argue that the corps’ operational capacity is limited by restrictions on the use of sophisticated military-grade weapons, making it difficult for operatives to confront heavily armed kidnappers, bandits and other violent criminal groups.

Commandant of the Oyo State Amotekun Corps, retired Col. Olayinka Olayanju, who spoke with The Guardian some years ago had identified the inability of the agency to obtain approval for sophisticated weapons as one of its major operational challenges.

Beyond the challenge of weapons, security experts identified funding, manpower and logistics as other factors affecting the corps’ operations. The security experts noted that budgetary constraints could impact the provision of patrol vehicles, communication gadgets, personnel welfare, operational logistics and regular training programmes.

The experts also stressed the need for continuous capacity building in intelligence gathering, investigation, conflict management, human rights and modern policing techniques to enhance operational effectiveness.

They further noted that effective collaboration with the police, the military and other security agencies remain essential, warning that poor inter-agency coordination could undermine security operations.

The analysts added that Amotekun’s activities are also subject to constitutional and jurisdictional limits, as the corps operates under state legislation and must function within the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution and federal laws regulating policing and the use of firearms.

Despite these challenges, the Oyo State government insisted that the corps remains one of the strongest security outfits in the South-West.

The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Prince Dotun Oyelade, recently said Oyo Amotekun is the best-funded and best-equipped corps in the region.

According to him, the agency currently has 2,509 personnel, the largest workforce among Amotekun corps in the South-West, supported by 181 operational vehicles and 450 motorcycles.

Oyelade also disclosed that more than 300 additional recruits are undergoing training to strengthen the corps’ operational capacity across the state.

Security Architecture Is A Necessity

THE Executive Secretary, Nigerian Institute for Industrial Security, Wilson Esangbedo, believes that the country’s security architecture point to the fact that Nigeria’s is extremely weak.

The former President, Association of Licensed Private Security Practitioners of Nigeria, Esangbedo said the first line of defence for every nation is the people but this system does not exist in Nigeria. “For instance, everybody in Israel goes through military training and that is the reason it is difficult to invade or raid that country. Now come back to Nigeria. Our people are not involved in security architecture. Even when they see things going wrong, they keep on going about their businesses.

“Therefore, the first thing we need to do is to integrate them into the national security architecture. This is where the National Orientation Agency comes in. However, if they are asked to do the needful, they will complain that they are not funded. This has created a conspicuous gap. We need to get our people together to understand their role and what they need to do. Their role is very simple: ‘See something, say something’. Once, the first step is handled, the second step is Private Guards.

“I used to be the President of all the private guard companies in the country and we advocated for these security guards to be integrated into the national security architecture. We have over 10,000 guards in the country. If they incorporate these people into an information sharing platform, there will be nothing happening that the government will not know.

“Now, you cannot deploy the police to all the schools. You cannot deploy Amotekun officials to all the schools. But you can deploy the private guards that are armed. They can be deployed to all the schools. If they change the private guard decree or they amend it and come up with fresh laws which empower Private Guards to carry arms. These private guards can now be deployed to all the schools. They will now be the first line of defense. When there is a problem, they can call for back up. Backup can come from Amotekun; it can come from the Police.”

Esangbedo continued: “What are we doing wrong, we are deploying those people that are supposed to serve as back up to all the schools and they don’t have the manpower. Now, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu knows that they do not have the manpower and that is the reason he withdrew policemen from the VIPs, but if you go round now, those policemen are actually back. Go to the ministers, those they withdrew from them are back working with the ministers. Why, because they know the country is not stable. All those hundred thousand policemen that were initially withdrawn are actually back. They are now working with the ministers, local government chairmen. They are fully back. This is because elections are coming and the politicians need to be protected from their opponents.

“Now, the reason security architecture should work is that at the first level, it should be the people. At the second level, it should be the armed security guards. If you go to South Africa, Guards are the ones in charge of VIPs protection. Police are not involved. Private Guard companies are going through a very rigorous screening process by SSS. So before a Private Guard company is licensed, the owners would be screened and there is a guideline from their regulatory body, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), that before any guard is employed, the guard must be vetted and trusted.

“Then we have Forest Guards that have been trained by the Department of State Security. I think they are under the control of that body. If things are properly done and the Forests Guards are deployed to the forest, things will be alright. But, I do not think they have actually done that. Kidnappers operate from the forest and if they are having a free day, it means we have not done what we should do. We have not actually rid the forests of criminals.”

Governors… And The Will For State Police

Esangbedo who also questioned the will of the state governors on the establishment of state police said, “the President in his wisdom has pushed for the establishment of State Police. Though some are opposing it, I personally like the President who looks at what we need in the country and whether some people kick against it or not, he moves on. Governors can give directives to the State Commissioner of Police and can be ignored. But with the establishment of State Police, governors are the Chief Security Officers of their States and when they give directives to the State Commissioner of Police under them that they appointed, they are bound to obey.

“If the move to create State Police is actualised, things will change and we can then reclaim our country back. This will also happen fast. The President knows that for him to win the coming election, just like the former President Jonathan Goodluck, the best thing is to put proper security in place. And the best thing is that if he sees that he cannot do it before February, the election would have to be postponed for the country to have a formidable security network. Things happen sequentially. The Inspector General of Police on ground is an experienced officer who has been involved in IRT operations. He understands the rudiment of policing. He understands what is to be done to get the bandits out of the country. The appointment of the IG is excellent, who is capable, competent, and has the strategy, one who knows what to do to make Nigeria free from crime. Of course, he cannot do it alone but with the lieutenants that will support him, back him up to make sure that Nigeria becomes a nation of peace, because without peace, the economy cannot thrive. Between now and December, a lot of things will happen very fast. When one looks at the kidnapping of those school children who were recently rescued, one can assume that they were kidnapped because of the coming election to cause distraction. This is the reason the President is in a hurry to make sure he empowers the States to protect their people, and keep them safe,” Esangbedo noted.

Community Intelligence, Local Collaboration Key To Tackling Insecurity

COMMUNITY-BASED security structures and intelligence gathering have continued to play a central role in efforts to tackle insecurity across parts of Lagos State, with traditional institutions and local vigilante groups saying closer collaboration among residents and security agencies has helped improve response to criminal activities.

The Adeboruwa of Igbogbo Kingdom, Oba Semiudeen Orimadegun Kasali, said insecurity is not limited to attacks on prominent individuals but a general security problem. He attributed the challenge partly to inadequate security arrangements but stressed that communities also have a responsibility to support security agencies.

According to him, residents must be willing to volunteer information that could help prevent crimes instead of remaining silent. “We have all refused and neglected to play our role. That is why they keep saying, ‘If you see something, say something.’ If everybody believes they have a role to play, then things will change,” he said.

Beyond encouraging residents to report suspicious activities, the monarch said Igbogbo has developed a community-based security structure involving multiple security organisations working together.

He explained that the Vigilante Group of Nigeria, Onyabo and Agbekoya operate within the community alongside a Joint Task Force established by the local council during the previous administration.

According to him, the Joint Task Force has since become the frontline security outfit within the community, while the other local security groups continue to complement its operations.

He added that all the security organisations operate under the coordination of the Divisional Police Officer responsible for the area. “The palace relates with all these bodies. The local council also holds monthly security meetings where the palace is represented. We review the security situation, and where there is need for the palace to intervene or reach out to the appropriate authorities, we do so. We coordinate our activities together,” he said.

The monarch recalled that the establishment of the Joint Task Force and the Ikorodu Divisional Security Trust Fund contributed to reducing crime within the community.

The Challenge

Amid its operational successes, Amotekun’s effectiveness is being undermined by structural deficiencies that security experts say leave the corps dangerously exposed.

Legal limitations remain one of the biggest obstacles. Unlike the police and military, Amotekun operatives are barred from carrying sophisticated firearms such as AK-47 rifles, forcing them to confront heavily armed kidnappers and bandits with limited firepower.

Funding is another critical challenge. In the state, concerns persist that the state government has not consistently provided the level of financial support required to sustain a modern security organisation.

Operational vehicles, communication gadgets, protective gear, and surveillance equipment remain inadequate.

Manpower shortages have further weakened the outfit’s effectiveness. Although Ondo State currently has over 2,000 Amotekun personnel following multiple recruitment exercises, the number is insufficient to adequately secure the state’s vast forests, highways, and border communities.

While recognising these gaps, the state government revealed that it has moved to address some of the challenges with the approval of a series of welfare initiatives by Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa aimed at boosting morale and improving operational capacity.

Amotekun personnel have been enlisted into the Ondo State Contributory Health Insurance Scheme, allowing operatives and their families to access quality healthcare.

Warrants of service enlistment have also been approved pending completion of the legal framework, while operatives will be enrolled in the contributory pension scheme and the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund.

The governor has also approved the recruitment of 500 additional personnel to improve operational capacity.

Adeleye confirmed that the corps maintains robust cooperation with other security agencies, stressing that “there are what we call heads of security agencies in the state, and it comprises Amotekun, the Army, the Police, Civil Defense, the DSS, and others. “We hold regular meetings, share information, and carry out joint operations,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ekiti State government has vowed that the state would be too hot for criminal elements, assuring residents that it would leave no stone unturned in ensuring the protection of lives and property across the state.

Governor Biodun Oyebanji who spoke shortly after a meeting with the Commander of the 12 Brigade Lokoja, in charge of Kogi and Ekiti, Brigadier-General Kazeem Umar Sidi, in his office in Ado-Ekiti recently, stressing that government is fully prepared to stamp out criminal elements and maintain peace, law and order in all parts of the state.

The governor urged residents not to entertain fears or panic, saying that he is working assiduously round the clock with security agencies to ensure their safety.

He also cautioned those who are in the habit of raising false alarms and spreading fake news of fathom attacks to desist from the mischievous act.

While maintaining that Ekiti remains one of the safest states in the country and that every necessary measure is being put in place to sustain the peaceful atmosphere, the Governor said his administration would spare no efforts to make the state uncomfortable for criminal elements.

Speaking in a telephone interview with The Guardian, the Special Adviser to the Ekiti State Governor on Security Matters, Brigadier General Ebenezer Ogundana (rtd.), declared that the Agro marshal, Forests Guards and Amotekun Corp work as a team with the Federal security agencies in Ekiti.

According to him, the Amotekun Corp complement the efforts of the federal security agencies by providing them with information, adding that, the police and other security forces only have limited knowledge of what is happening in the city but with the kind of support they are getting from Amotekun and others, it has made their work easier.

“The collaboration between these agencies have assisted us to where we are today in the state which you can see, despite isolated attacks here and there.”

Speaking on the limitations of Amotekun Corp, Ogundana said that the agency is limited by the law which established it. “We have to get clearance from the federal government to be able to use weapons. Officially, the kind of weapons we are going to use, but we are using limited weapons that the Corps can use to protect themselves. As you know, we have prohibited and non-prohibited weapons.

The Chairman, Ekiti State Council of Traditional Rulers and Ogoga of Ikere Ekiti, Oba Adejimi Adu Alagbado, has called for expeditious review of the kidnapping law to stipulate strict punitive actions for those fanning the number of crimes in the land.

Oba Adu-Alagbado also called on President Tinubu, the National Assembly and other stakeholders to fast-track actions on the creation of the State Police, so that each state can have a stronger security architecture that can deal decisively with criminal elements terrorising the country.

“The bill for the creation of the state police should be fast-tracked. Our people are not cowards, but our hands are tied, because our people can’t carry AK 47 to face these criminals.”

Also speaking, a public affairs analyst, Mr Bayo Olanipekun, described the security situation in the south west as unacceptable, saying that while the Nigerian Constitution recognises the governor as chief security officer of a state, the governor lacks ability to command security forces.

He said that efforts should be made to establish State Police to tackle the security situation, saying that Amotekun as presently constituted lack the ability to deal with the security situation. “Do you know that farmers are now abandoning farmlands due to fear of kidnapping/killings? If nothing is done, the hardship will be unbearable because even now prices of foodstuffs are very high, let alone when there is no more farming.” (The Guardian)