Akeredolu’s Dream of State Police Becoming a Reality, Says Aiyedatiwa

​Ondo State Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, has declared that the visionary campaigns for decentralised security and state policing championed by the late former Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu have officially moved from regional advocacy to the pinnacle of Nigeria’s national policy.

​Speaking in Ibadan during a high-profile colloquium commemorating Akeredolu’s 70th posthumous birthday, Governor Aiyedatiwa noted that his predecessor’s relentless pursuits are actively shaping current institutional reforms. The event, themed “Fundamentals and Governance of State Policing: Towards a New Architecture for National Security in Nigeria,” drew prominent leaders across the country.

​Aiyedatiwa recalled how Akeredolu, alongside fellow South-West governors, challenged central policing limitations by birthing the Amotekun Corps—a regional security framework that recently collaborated with federal forces to flush out ISWAP terrorists from state forests.

​Reinforcing these sentiments, Ogun State Governor and Chairman of the NGF Committee on State Police, Dapo Abiodun, revealed that Nigeria requires an influx of over 554,000 additional personnel to meet United Nations policing standards, stressing that the centralised security model has run its course.

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​Eminent figures including former Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Ekiti State Governor Biodun Oyebanji, and DAWN Commission DG Dr. Seye Oyeleye lauded Akeredolu’s uncompromising courage, legal scholarship, and unwavering commitment to true federalism.

​Closing the tributes, Aiyedatiwa pledged that Ondo State would continue translating Akeredolu’s ideals into concrete governance and infrastructural continuity, noting that a safer, more responsive nation remains the truest monument to his memory.