Adeleke partners with Ooni of Ife, local vigilantes to counter emerging Southwest threats

Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke has activated all layers of the state’s security apparatus, integrating formal service commanders with local grassroots hunter and paramilitary groups to safeguard schools and communities against emerging banditry threats.

Responding to a worrying rise in regional security threats across the Southwest geopolitical zone, the Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has officially activated all tiers of the state’s security apparatus to insulate local schools and vulnerable communities from potential insurgent incursions. In an official security update published on his verified X (formerly Twitter) handle on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, Governor Adeleke outlined a comprehensive, multi-layered defensive strategy. The newly deployed model systematically bridges the operational gap between Nigeria’s formal federal armed forces and indigenous, grassroots paramilitary networks to create a synchronized, early-warning shield across the state.

The strategic mobilization follows days of back-to-back, closed-door intelligence consultations with diverse regional stakeholders aimed at auditing the state’s current readiness levels. The administrative rollout purposefully leverages the deep geographical familiarity of local hunter associations, the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), the Agbekoya movement, and the specialized Western Nigeria Security Network, popularly known as Amotekun. Deconstructing the structural integration during an emergency high-level briefing, Governor Adeleke wrote, “In the past few days, I have held extensive security consultations with stakeholders across the state, formal and informal, to strengthen our collective preparedness against emerging threats. We began at the grassroots: hunters, OPC, Agbekoya, Amotekun and community-based security groups,” before adding, “Today, we escalated to an expanded State Security Council session with service commanders. Every layer of our security architecture is activated and coordinated.”

Recognizing that sustainable territorial defense relies heavily on historical and traditional intelligence pathways, the governor also revealed that he has initiated direct strategic communications with the Osun State Traditional Council of Obas. Adeleke has personally engaged the Co-Chairman of the National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, to ensure that royal fathers mobilize local village intelligence networks to feed real-time operational data directly to state security commanders. Reaffirming his administration’s zero-tolerance stance on external aggression, the governor concluded, “Securing our schools, our communities, and our people is non-negotiable, and we are deploying intelligence gathering, strategic collaboration and coordinated action to protect every inch of the state.”

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