Ondo State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Kayode Ajulo SAN, has thrown his weight behind President Bola Tinubu’s call for the establishment of state police, insisting that decentralised policing has become an existential necessity for Nigeria as insecurity continues to escalate across the federation.
President Tinubu had recently urged the National Assembly to initiate a review of relevant laws to allow states that require it to set up their own police forces. The President, who declared a nationwide security emergency, said the measure would strengthen the country’s security architecture and respond more effectively to rising threats.
Ajulo, in a statement issued on Thursday, said Nigeria’s current centralised policing structure can no longer cope with the country’s diverse and region-specific security challenges.
He highlighted the varying threats confronting different parts of the country – from herder-farmer conflicts in the North to cultism in the South, kidnapping in the Middle Belt, and oil theft in the Niger Delta, arguing that a single policing model is inadequate to meet such complex realities.
“The truth is simple,” he said. “A centralised police force cannot effectively tailor solutions to all, but the state police can.”
Ajulo described President Tinubu’s call to lawmakers as a timely and pragmatic step, noting that it presents an opportunity to codify the successes of regional initiatives such as the South-West Security Network Agency, Amotekun.
He maintained that Amotekun’s performance demonstrates how decentralised policing can operate constitutionally, transparently, and with measurable impact.
According to him, Amotekun has significantly boosted security across the South-West since its creation in 2020. He disclosed that the outfit’s border surge operations had, in 2025 alone, created a security “firewall” that disrupted criminal infiltration across the region.
He attributed these gains to cultural awareness, community-driven intelligence, and rapid response capabilities that federal policing structures struggle to replicate.
Ajulo noted that reported cases of kidnapping in Ondo and Osun states dropped by nearly 70 percent by mid-2025, despite Amotekun operating with limited access to arms and resources. He emphasised that the corps had delivered these results without ethnic profiling or political abuse.
The senior advocate commended governors in the South-West for what he called their visionary approach to subnational security governance.
He particularly praised Ondo State Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa for approving the recruitment of 500 new Amotekun personnel and for inaugurating a modern Control Command Centre equipped with drones, surveillance systems, intelligent mapping tools, and real-time citizen security reporting capabilities.
The commissioner said the move reflects strategic foresight and ensures the corps is better equipped to handle intelligence gathering, border patrols, forest surveillance, and rural rapid-response operations.
“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,” he added.
Ajulo urged the National Assembly to legislate proactively on state police, describing it as the most effective path to resolving the country’s deepening security crisis. He warned that failure to act would amount to a historic dereliction of responsibility.
“The governors in the South-West, with Amotekun, have shown that they can wield security as a shield, not a sword,” he said. “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.”
