Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, has launched the Ogun State chapter of his security outfit, the Iru Ekun Security Network.
Igboho said on Wednesday that the Federal Government would decide who trains the members, while the Ogun State Government would determine where they are deployed. “The federal government will decide who will come and train us. The governor’s office tells us where they will place us,” he said. After training, members would receive identification cards at the local government level. The state government, he added, had promised support and would set the monthly allowance to help members care for their families.
He urged members to remain disciplined and not to behave recklessly simply because they had been trained and issued identity cards. The long-term plan, he said, is for members across the South-West to receive official identification so they can operate legally, support their families and help maintain security. He compared the group to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), which began on a small scale before becoming a recognised federal agency.
The Ogun launch comes about a month after Igboho introduced the network in Ilorin, Kwara State, where he said the group would help reclaim forests from bandits and prevent criminals from using them as hideouts.
The model depends on two layers of official consent: federal training and state deployment. Without those, a privately initiated outfit remains outside the formal security architecture. Identification cards and allowances are meant to regularise the members and reduce the risk of abuse. Whether Iru Ekun becomes a recognised complement to existing agencies, or remains a campaign-style network with limited legal standing, will depend on how far the federal and state governments actually take up the training, posting and funding roles Igboho has assigned to them.
