Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun has ordered the immediate deployment of a multi-agency security operation across schools in the state, citing recent instability in neighbouring states as the primary trigger for the move.
Abiodun announced the plan on Wednesday, saying the decision was driven by “recent security developments in neighbouring states” and that implementation would begin straight away.
The initiative, according to Abiodun, will bring together the So-Safe Corps, Amotekun Corps, hunters, vigilante groups, traditional rulers, religious leaders, and other security agencies in an effort to protect pupils and school communities across Ogun.
“This proactive step has become necessary in view of recent security developments in neighbouring states, and implementation will commence immediately across the state,” Abiodun said.
He did not specify which neighbouring states or incidents prompted the action, but the announcement reflects mounting anxiety across the South-West region over kidnappings and attacks on schools and rural communities in recent months.
Alongside the security push, Abiodun also unveiled a Direct Impact Committee, which will travel across communities to assess and respond to basic infrastructure needs. The committee is tasked with delivering transformers, boreholes, and solar streetlights to underserved areas.
Abiodun also announced that monthly financial support will be extended to beneficiaries at polling unit level across the state, a measure designed to ease economic hardship and strengthen community ties.
It is worth noting that announcing constituency-level cash disbursements through polling units, particularly ahead of any electoral cycle, is the kind of detail that tends to attract scrutiny.
Governments across Nigeria have long faced questions over where development spending ends and political mobilisation begins. The administration did not elaborate on the selection criteria for beneficiaries or the amounts involved.
Abiodun used the occasion to thank religious leaders in the state for their contribution to Ogun’s relative stability, crediting their “prayers, support, and commitment to peaceful coexistence” as a meaningful factor in the state’s socio-economic progress.
Ogun, which borders Lagos to the south and Oyo, Osun, and Ondo states to the north and east, has largely avoided the severity of security crises seen in parts of the South-West, though rural communities in the state have not been entirely immune to banditry and kidnapping incidents.
Abiodun’s move to rope in traditional rulers, hunters, and religious figures alongside formal security agencies indicates a familiar and often effective approach to community policing in South-West Nigeria, one that acknowledges the limits of uniformed security alone in protecting dispersed, semi-rural school populations.
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