The Ondo State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Kayode Ajulo SAN, says Nigeria urgently needs state police to effectively address its growing security challenges.
This comes as President Bola Tinubu recently urged the National Assembly to review existing laws to enable states to create their own police forces as part of efforts to curb 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.”
In a statement issued on Thursday, Ajulo said the current centralized policing system is no longer sufficient to tackle the diverse criminal activities across the federation.
He highlighted that Nigeria’s security challenges vary by regions, citing 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 centralized 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.”
Ajulo urged stakeholders to support the creation of state police, citing the South West Security Network Agency, also known as Amotekun, as a successful example of decentralized policing. He noted that the system has significantly 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 decentralized 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 decentralized 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 centralized structure struggles to access at the same speed. These results are rooted not in brute force but in cultural fluency, localized 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 praised the South-West governor for establishing the regional security outfit and called on the National Assembly to legislate proactively on state police, describing it as the most effective solution to the nation’s security challenges.
He also commended Ondo State Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa for approving the recruitment of 500 personnel into the state Amotekun corps and for inaugurating Amotekun’s Control Command Center, equipped with drones, surveillance systems, intelligent mapping, and real-time citizen security reporting—showcasing both scalability and modernization.
“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 sub-national 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.
