Iru Ekun: Why South-West Security Must Not Escape Accountability

Iru Ekun Security Network raises a question beyond praise or condemnation: how can Yoruba communities fight kidnapping without creating a private force that grows beyond the law? Farmers deserve protection, but any security network with large membership, unclear funding and personal loyalty must have firm legal limits. The South-West already has Amotekun, a state-backed security structure that needs better funding, equipment, welfare, insurance and oversight. Strengthening that lawful institution is safer than allowing parallel security structures to compete for public trust, recruits and influence. Claims about Iru Ekun’s size, financing and intentions should be independently verified. Its leadership must also ensure the network is never used for ethnic profiling, religious mobilisation, political enforcement, unofficial levies or self-appointed justice. Community intelligence can help security agencies, but it must remain accountable to the law. The region needs trained, properly paid and professionally supervised security personnel—not competing centres of coercive power.

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