Ondo’s security non-negotiable, says Aiyedatiwa

…as Amotekun inducts 500 new operatives

Lucky Aiyedatiwa, the governor of Ondo State, on Wednesday reaffirmed that security remains the fulcrum upon which sustainable development rests.

He cautioned that no society can prosper in an atmosphere of fear, no economy can thrive where lives and property are unsafe and no government can legitimately claim success if it fails in its primary responsibility of protecting its people.

The Governor disclosed this during the passing-out parade of Batch 05 (BR05) of the Ondo State Security Network Agency, Amotekun Corps, held at the historic parade ground of the Ondo State House of Assembly Arcade Complex in Akure.

Describing the ceremony as symbolic, strategic and historic, the Governor said the event marked a decisive moment in consolidating the state’s security architecture.

The Governor, reminiscing about the event, remarked that the scene evoked memories of his late predecessor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, the erstwhile Amotekun 001.

The newly recruited operatives, he noted, are well-trained, disciplined and ideologically re-oriented men and women who have willingly offered themselves in service to the peace, stability and collective survival of Ondo State.

Adetunji Adeleye, the Commander of the Ondo State Security Network Agency, in his welcome address cautioned the newly inducted operatives that they are agents of the law and not above it.

He stated that the corps was deliberately designed as a legal, community-rooted and intelligence-driven security outfit to close local security gaps, support conventional forces and respond swiftly to threats peculiar to the state’s terrain and communities.

Adeleye emphasised that Amotekun was not created to rival any existing security agency but to complement them through synergy with the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Police, the Department of State Services, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, the National Boundary Management Agency and other sister agencies.

He noted that modern security challenges have become complex, asymmetrical and socially sensitive, ranging from banditry and kidnapping to communal tensions, farmers–herders clashes and criminal infiltration of rural communities.

According to him, members of BOIA 05 were stepping into service at a critical time, and their responsibility extends beyond physical presence to include alertness, restraint, integrity, confidentiality and loyalty to the state and its people.

He warned that any act of indiscipline, corruption, abuse of power or collaboration with criminal elements would attract decisive institutional sanctions, adding that the image of the corps would be judged daily by the conduct of operatives in villages, highways, forests and farmsteads.

He stressed that the training was structured to produce disciplined operatives, not militants; professional responders, not aggressors; and community protectors, not oppressors.

Adeleye thanked the governor for meeting the basic needs of the corps, including provision of vehicles and equipment, enhanced salary packages, life insurance, NSITF quota for operatives, welfare packages above standard civil service levels and improved training facilities.