Community police: How dearth of standards aids unlicensed armed groups’ proliferation

The abduction of dozens of pupils and teachers in communities within Oriire Local Council of Oyo State and many other places has reignited debate over community security, private security proliferation and the limits of the country’s legal framework. ROTIMI AGBOLUAJE reports that the plan to set up a private security outfit, known as Iru Ekun, in Oyo State underscores the urgency of decentralised policing in Nigeria.

As parents waited anxiously for the release of their children and teachers in terrorists’ captivity, public attention quickly shifted from the immediate tragedy to a broader and recurring question: Who protects citizens when the institutions constitutionally mandated to provide security appear overwhelmed?

The incident has revived intense conversations around community policing, state police, regional security networks and the legality of emerging security initiatives such as Iru Ekun (Leopard’s tail), the outfit recently proposed by Yoruba Nation activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho .

Beyond the controversy surrounding the proposed outfit itself, the debate reflects something much deeper, a growing public frustration with insecurity and an expanding gap between citizens’ expectations and the capacity of existing institutions to guarantee safety.

The Iru Ekun controversy is not merely about the security initiative. It is about the future of policing in Nigeria, the limits of the country’s legal framework, and the increasing demand for localised responses to the rising web of insecurity across the country.

For decades, security concerns in the South-West were largely associated with armed robbery, cultism, political violence and occasional communal clashes, but those threats, while serious, were generally localised and manageable within conventional law enforcement structures.

However, recent developments suggest a significant shift, and a former Nigerian Ambassador to the Philippines, Dr Yemi Farounbi, believes the region is confronting a new and more dangerous security reality.

According to him, the South-West is increasingly experiencing threats that resemble organised terrorism rather than ordinary criminality.

“The unexpected is happening. It’s no longer armed robbery cases; it’s no longer banditry; it is full-scale terrorism,” the elder statesman said.

Also, a lecturer at the Department of History, University of Ilesa, Dr Adebukola Ayoola, said that the rising insecurity and the perceived failure of conventional security agencies have made the emergence of community-based security outfits such as Iru Ekun inevitable.

Ayoola and Farounbi’s assessments mirror concerns among many security analysts, who believe that criminal networks displaced from the North are relocating to forests and rural communities across the South-West.

It must be noted that terrorism requires capabilities far beyond those of conventional policing. It demands intelligence gathering, surveillance technology, counter-insurgency operations, sophisticated communications systems and access to advanced weaponry.

These are functions traditionally concentrated within federal institutions such as the military, intelligence services and specialised police formations. Yet for communities under attack, insecurity is seen as a problem requiring immediate local solutions. This tension between a centralised security architecture and local security realities lies at the heart of Nigeria’s current dilemma.

Whenever insecurity escalates in any state, public anger is immediately directed at the governor as citizens expect state governments to act, deploy resources and guarantee safety.  Nothing illustrates Nigeria’s security paradox more clearly than the position of state governors as state governors have no direct constitutional authority over the police, military, State Security Services (SSS) or other federal security agencies operating within their territories.

The Nigerian Constitution places policing under the Exclusive Legislative List, making the Nigeria Police Force a federal institution answerable only to the president through the inspector-general of police.

As a result, governors often carry the political burden of insecurity without possessing the operational tools needed to address it. This contradiction has fuelled persistent calls for decentralised policing and constitutional reform.

Supporters of state police argue that local authorities possess better knowledge of their environments and can respond more effectively to emerging threats.

However, opponents remain cautious and frequently point to Nigeria’s First Republic experience with Native Authority Police, which critics said were sometimes used to intimidate political opponents and suppress dissent. The fear is that state-controlled police formations could become instruments of political persecution.

But as insecurity continues to spread, the argument in favour of a decentralised police system is gaining momentum, wi…