The Ondo State Security Network (codenamed AMOTEKUN) has proven to be a force for good in the state under the leadership of the Corps Commander, Akogun Adetunji Adeleye since its establishment four (4) years ago by the late former Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu. This was in the face of heightened economic and political tension that was about to tear down the state. It would be recalled that the state had degraded into such a bad shape with a terrorist attack on a church in Owo, incessant farmer-herder crisis, numerous kidnapping, daylight bank robberies and highway robberies, among other security challenges.
It was at this point that Akogun Adetunji Adeleye was saddled with the responsibility of leading the AMOTEKUN Corps in order to restore sanity into the state. Since then, the Corps Commander Adetunji Adeleye who doubles as the Chairman of Council of AMOTEKUN Corps Commanders in the Southwest (comprising Ekiti, Osun, Oyo, Ogun, and Ondo states) has done incredibly well in restoring confidence of the citizenry and peace and stability in the state.
This intervention has been hailed widely across the country as a testament to the fact that the community approach is the best way out of the many security issues around the country.
The hardworking Corps Commander of the Ondo State AMOTEKUN Corps, Akogun Adetunji Adeleye had an exclusive interview with the security beats association, National Association of Online Security News Publishers (NAOSNP) led by the National President, Oki O. Samson during the association’s visit to the state-of-the-art Corporate Headquarters of the Ondo State Security Network Agency (Amotekun) in Akure, Ondo state for a firsthand assessment tour of the security situation in the state ahead of the 16th November governorship election.
During the interview, he disclosed how he has been able to manage the situation so much that no bank robbery was recorded in the past two (2) years, herders and farmers are living in tolerance, among other successes. On what he personally does as the Head of the very effective and highly praised AMOTEKUN Corps in Ondo State, Adetunji Adeleye said: ‘It is 24 hours, physically I’m in the office for 18 hours everyday. I pick a senatorial district to go round the metropolis. If I’m going to the North today, I go from here to Oka, Isua and come back by 5 am. Tomorrow it could be South, third day it could be Central. That’s what I do, so there’s no way you will get to the AMOTEKUN post that you will not meet them there because they will not know when I’ll come, and they know the implications. If I meet you sleeping you go to jail, that’s why people are sleeping with their two eyes closed in Ondo state.’
Here is the full interview.
NAOSNP: It takes a man with a lion heart to achieve this much, seeing the things that AMOTEKUN Corps has done, it shows the stuff you are made of. Paint for us how bad the problem was when you stepped in?
Akogun Adetunji Adeleye: I want to let you know that it has not been a tea party. When we started in 2020 the security situation of Ondo State was so terrible that for those who are familiar with the terrain, an average person cannot go to the bank and get home safely. If the money is not collected on the road, they will come to your house and collect it. You can not transact business by 7pm. People will come and harass you in the shop and collect your money.
Kidnapping was already happening inside taxi, inside town, and no farmer was going to the farm again by early 2020 for fear of being robbed and kidnapped. Our highways had become home for armed robbers. When we came on board we saw ahead of the issue of food insecurity if the farmers and herders clashes were not addressed.
NAOSNP: What strategies did you deploy to avert the dangers and challenges that you just described?
Akogun Adetunji Adeleye: We commenced mass literacy to make farmers know their limitations as well as the herders to know their limitations. We reminded them that before an average Yoruba man will go to any Sabo to buy wara and leave freely but suddenly we started having issues of bandits, kidnappers and robbers. We met with the leadership of the herders and the farmers and told them an end had come. We did it consecutively for about 5 years. Farmers go to farms, herders rear your cattle don’t destroy farms.
When we commenced enforcement, it was a terrible battle but we had to make a statement. I remember my first operation, physically, we recovered and arrested about 350 cows and you know what it takes to take only one cow from an average Fulani, he will prefer losing his child to release a cow, so you can imagine what we’ve gone through. We subsequently arrested their cows in thousands, we made them to pay restitution for the farms damaged and we tell the farmers don’t take law into your hands, don’t fight them, just report, so we go there and meet them, fight it out with them, arrested them and bring them to book. When the crisis was getting too much, we approached the government and a law was put in place proclaimed anti open-grazing law, we are operating it and enforcing it.
Also, every December there must be bank robberies, so we came in to make a statement “end to bank robberies”. Within the first 2 years, we were able to bring it down, bank robbery was attempted once. I was there to lead the team, we confronted them and that was the last till date.
Also during festive periods, we were able to rescue hundreds of commuters that were either kidnapped or robbed between Osun and Ondo. We tagged it “Osun, Ondo border patrols for Ember”. We did the same for Ondo and Ore, but we recorded much more success between Ife and Akure. We rescued well over 500 people, recovered well over 200 cars, rescued goods, rescued kidnapped victims in their hundreds in 2022 and 2023 and today the story is better. We give it to the government for creating an enabling environment for us to work.
NAOSNP: What other challenges did you encounter on the job?
Akogun Adetunji Adeleye: At a point, with the turnout of suspected criminals that we arrested, the state judiciary could not cope, so we had to create a court named AMOTEKUN court, and the judiciary graciously gave us judges and magistrates such that you can have quick dispensation of justice. As we talk now we have secured hundreds of convictions and we have inmates in all the correctional centers in the state from Amotekun.
NAOSNP: Some say that the head of security agencies should come from their locality, majority of your officers are resident and citizen of Ondo state, what’s your take on this?
Akogun Adetunji Adeleye: It is not only in Ondo state, what we try to do is localize it. Criminal activities are localized so it’s best to design a homegrown solution to the problem. The problem in Okitipupa in ondo state is different from the problem in Owo and different from the problem in Akoko. For instance, today, the problem we have in Akoko is that if there is going to be any kidnapping they already know the way we operate, so they will not operate beyond 2-3 kilometers of the boundary so that they can quickly run out of Ondo State within minutes of kidnapping they are out and they know that Amotekun can not operate in Kogi, Amotekun can not operate in Kwara. The same thing happens in Ose local government, they go to the edge 2 minutes after they strike they are in Edo state and Amotekun cannot operate there, so they have that latitude.
That is why we now designed what we call Amotekun rangers. Amotekun rangers stays entirely in the forest, and since we did that imoruijagba area, this is an area where on daily basis for more than 2 years there are kidnapping, that was the end of it. They attempted once, 7 of them were arrested and they are in the correctional center.
NAOSNP: How has AMOTEKUN Corps been able to use technology in their success story?
Akogun Adetunji Adeleye: There is no way we could have done it without technology. We are talking about human beings with blood in their veins and you gave me stick to go into the forest and go and fight somebody with Ak 47 and I successfully arrested the person with Ak 47. So what do you think happen there, so AMOTEKUN is both conventional and unconventional security and it is devoid of bureaucracy.
Like we have a distress call line. This distress call line operates in the 18 local government areas of the state and we had been able to compress our response time from about 1 hour before to less than 5 minutes.
We have a rehabilitation center here, especially ladies that are raped, we bring them to our clinic we treat them we make them comfortable.
NAOSNP: When people see AMOTEKUN and their uniform, they say they can disappear, is that true? How have you managed excesses of officers?
Akogun Adetunji Adeleye: Let me emphasize that we are strategically placed in all the 18 local government areas, there is no place that you will tell us that there is crisis that AMOTEKUN will not be there. I have exposed my men to all sorts of operation in the last four years, nobody has been able to say they pay 1 kobo, nobody has been able to say AMOTEKUN takes 1 kobo from them. The consequences are grave, my operatives know it, so these are the things that make us have confidence in the people.
Our success story would not have been complete without the support of the people, they give us actionable information and this are the things that makes it easier for us, and I talk to you about localizing solutions, Amotekun recruits Owo local government indigene, Okiti pupa local government indigene, Akure local government indigene, at least 80% of them must come from that local government. We started with less than 200 and we shook the entire state. Now that we are in thousands, what do you expect but it is still not enough. You know security architecture is different from a normal public service job. While we are not complaining, we want more.
NAOSNP: What is your assessment of the successes of AMOTEKUN Corps in the Southwest?
Akogun Adetunji Adeleye: I think by and large, Amotekun in Ondo State has been able to justify the primary reason in the wisdom of the former governors who came together that they don’t want the Southwest to turn out to be what is happening in Sambisa. That was the reason why Amotekun came to be. And because there was no template I decided and formulated a working paper for Amotekun in the Southwest.
AMOTEKUN has been able to justify the reason for its establishment which is complementing the effort of all security agencies and doting the Is and crossing the Ts where bureaucracy do not allow them to work. You see most of these agencies, it is not as if they also do not want to succeed but there are lot of bureaucracies in place that hinder them from doing those things, but because in Amotekun the hierarchy ends with the Governor of the state and that’s it and the law is in place to back it up, especially the present Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa has given us enough room, latitude to work.
I am telling you from practical experience that until we go local we cannot solve the security problems in Nigeria. That is why I totally support the state policing idea. Look at the way it is working in Ondo State with AMOTEKUN.
