An Ondo State indigene and development stakeholder, Olakunle Ajayi, has urged Ondo State Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa to urgently re-engineer the state’s security architecture in response to escalating killings, kidnappings and coordinated attacks across communities.
Addressing the governor, Ajayi wrote with a “heavy but hopeful heart,” describing recent incidents, including the invasion of the palace of Oba Kehinde Falodun, the Alagamo of Agamo, who was killed by armed bandits.
He said the attack “was not merely another crime statistic; it was a symbolic attack on our heritage, authority structures and communal dignity across Ondo State.”
He also cited coordinated attacks in Akure South and North, protests by residents of Ilu-Abo and Ala over repeated killings and abductions, the burning of a divisional police headquarters in Ipele, killings in Owo, and the abduction and murder of an APC ward chairman in Ose, even after ransom was paid.
According to him, “these incidents are not isolated… They form a pattern that signals structural weaknesses in our current security framework and architecture.”
While acknowledging the efforts of the Ondo State Police Command, the Nigerian Army, the DSS, Amotekun Corps, local hunters and vigilantes, Ajayi said the frequency and audacity of attacks show that the system is “overstretched and largely reactive rather than preventive.”
He identified structural gaps, including delayed response times, forest corridors serving as escape routes, a lack of mapped entry and exit control systems in communities, and evidence of local collaborators.
“Criminal operations often last only minutes. By the time centralised response units mobilise, attackers have retreated into forests,” he stated.
Ajayi proposed a decentralised, community-driven and intelligence-led security model.
He recommended that each community establish a structured security council led by the palace of the relevant Oba, conduct security mapping of entry and exit routes, and institutionalise coordinated vigilante rotations funded through a transparent community security levy.
He further called for a 24-hour multi-agency Security Situation Room with a toll-free emergency line, real-time electronic logging and geo-mapping of incidents, and immediate dispatch capability.
“Citizens must regain confidence that when they call for help, help is already in motion,” he said.
Among other measures, he proposed a 15-minute rapid response grid across hotspots, enhanced investment and training for Amotekun, systematic dismantling of criminal networks beyond individual arrests, strengthened intelligence collaboration with neighbouring states, permanent forest surveillance units, and the establishment of a special fast-track security court for banditry and kidnapping cases.
Ajayi warned that insecurity is overshadowing the state’s economic and agricultural prospects, noting that “investors hesitate in unstable environments” and farmers are abandoning farmlands out of fear.
He concluded that his proposals were offered “not as criticism but as partnership,” urging the governor to lead a decisive transformation with “bold restructuring, firm political will, intelligent decentralisation and genuine community ownership” to secure the state.
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