South-West Governors Accused of Prioritizing Politics Over Regional Security

A retired intelligence chief has issued a sharp critique of security management in Nigeria’s South-West geopolitical zone, accusing regional governors of playing politics with the lives of citizens while failing to act on comprehensive threat intelligence.

Brigadier-General Kunle Togun (retd.), a former Director of Military Intelligence and ex-Chairman of the Oyo State Amotekun Corps, stated that political leaders in the region are treating critical security infrastructure as public relations exercises rather than implementing proactive tactical measures.

According to Togun, detailed security analyses identifying high-risk areas across Yoruba land have been systematically ignored by state executives.

Despite receiving substantial monthly security votes, governors are allegedly neglecting deep-forest surveillance and tactical deployments. He criticized the practice of parking security vehicles along main highways, such as the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, noting that stationary vehicles fail to deter kidnappers and instead make security personnel easy targets for ambush.

Large, contiguous forest reserves including the Oyo National Park and the Opara Forest Reserve, which spans over 250,000 hectares into Ibarapa remain largely unmonitored due to a lack of coordinated technological deployment. Furthermore, the regional security outfit, Amotekun, was described as having received inadequate, rushed training that focused heavily on public parade rehearsals rather than actual combat, ambush, and patrol tactics.

The former intelligence chief maintained his controversial stance that the surge in banditry, insurgent activity, and high-profile abductions such as the recent school kidnapping in Oriire, Oyo State is part of a deliberate, coordinated infiltration by armed herdsmen and foreign actors from across the Sahel.

He alleged that past federal immigration policies allowed undocumented individuals from Central and West Africa to cross borders unchecked, where many settled in forest thickets across Ondo, Ekiti, and Oyo states.

Togun asserted that the late Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, was the only regional leader who demonstrated genuine commitment to regional defense.

Following a reported lack of action from the current South-West Governors’ Forum on updated security blueprints, local stakeholders are reportedly shifting focus toward alternative methods.

Faced with what he termed political complacency from state actors, Togun disclosed that he is currently collaborating with localized networks of hunters and trackers in the Oke-Ogun area to develop traditional defense mechanisms to secure communities from further insurgent incursions.