S’West governors playing politics with security – Ex-DMI chief, Togun

Former Deputy Director-General of the State Security Service and ex-Chairman of the Oyo State Amotekun Corps, Brig.-Gen. Kunle Togun (retd.), speaks with WALE AKINSELURE on rising insecurity in the South-West, the effectiveness of regional security efforts, and his controversial views on the forces driving banditry and insurgency in the region

Tou have repeatedly warned about the infiltration of Yoruba land by terrorists, bandits and insurgents. Recently, there was the abduction of teachers and students in Oyo State. As a former Director of Military Intelligence and ex-Chairman of Amotekun in Oyo State, how serious is the security threat in the South-West today?

As you said, I have been shouting, I have been complaining to people, but nobody listened. You said I was Director of Military Intelligence, yes; after that, I was Deputy Director-General of the SSS. The training I had with taxpayers’ money gave me the opportunity and chance to analyse security. I saw this coming, and I have been shouting since 2014. It was that year that the Yoruba Council of Elders invited me to deliver a lecture on security. I gave the lecture in Ibadan, at their headquarters in Old Bodija. At that time, I told them that trouble was coming, fighting was coming. That was the time I joined the Yoruba Council of Elders. But last year, in 2025, they complained that I was no longer attending meetings. I said, “ You sit down, organise lectures, invite people to come and give you security analyses, but you are not taking action. Some months back, somebody from YCE in Ekiti called me and said, “General, these bandits have started attacking the Yoruba in Kwara.” I asked, “Are there Yoruba in Kwara?” The man was shocked. He said, “How can you say that?” I said yes, because you cannot tell me you are not aware of the fact that several top Kwara indigenes told the whole world that they were not Yoruba, that they were Northerners. There is another popular man from Okene, Kogi. He even became Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum. He was saying they were not Yoruba, they were Northerners. They said Kwara would not affiliate with the South-West because they were not Yoruba. Nobody was talking. So, I told that man, as far as I’m concerned, there are no Yoruba in Kwara until they prove they are Yoruba. Talking about security in the South-West, I have been shouting. I was Chairman of Amotekun in Oyo State; I analysed the threats to Oyo State. I extracted them from my analysis of the threats to Yoruba land. I gave it to the Commandant in Oyo State, Lt. Col. Olayinka Olayanju. Everybody believes every soldier is a security expert. I analysed everything, identified the threats to Oyo State, and what he should do when operations started. A copy of my letter was sent to Governor Seyi Makinde. But I got no cooperation from them.

What specific threats did you identify at the time?

I told them the threats to Yoruba land are the Fulani. When people start mentioning the North, it is not the North. It is the Fulani; they have suppressed the Hausa, who are in the majority, while the Fulani are a minority. On insurgency, the threat to Nigeria is the Fulani. This insurgency, this banditry, is a Fulani agenda.

You have consistently described the insecurity as a “Fulani agenda.” What exactly do you mean by that?

You want to tell me you don’t know? You mean you are not aware that they were announcing that God had given them Nigeria as an inheritance? And that they had invited Fulani from all over to come to Nigeria and take the inheritance God had given them? This insecurity in Nigeria is a Fulani agenda, and Fulani are involved, no matter where they are. You will keep hearing the names of those identified as sponsors. Several of the names being mentioned are Fulani names. You will remember I said this during the interview I had with Edmund Obilo in 2014, when late General Muhammadu Buhari was contesting the presidency against Goodluck Jonathan. Some of them said that if Jonathan won, they would make Nigeria ungovernable for him. That was the time bandits were invited into Nigeria. Those bandits argued that when the British left in 1960, they handed Nigeria over to the Fulani, and that they were now in Nigeria to defend what the British handed over to them, that Nigeria belongs to the Fulani, and they have to run Nigeria. So, they were deposited in Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara, and some of them were stationed in Ondo and Ekiti areas. I know those in charge of their logistics and feeding. You cannot tell me you don’t know; you are a journalist.

Are you suggesting the insurgency in the country was organised and coordinated?

The plan is for the Fulani to take over. Fulani bandits came in from West Africa. Most of these people were from Mali, Southern Sudan, Libya and Burkina Faso. There is something called the trans-Saharan route. These Tuaregs used to waylay travellers and dispossess them of their properties, money and everything. In the Geography I was taught, these Tuaregs were referred to as desert thieves. Those are the people who came into Nigeria. The government then allowed Fulani from Central Africa to come in, announcing that it was giving all Africans — because the others are West Africans and covered by ECOWAS free movement — a chance to come into Nigeria without a visa. The ECOWAS free movement does not involve people from Central Africa. You cannot say you did not hear it at the time. This is how these people flocked in. They were given national identification numbers, making them automatic citizens. We know these things, and that is why we are shouting.

How much of the security challenge would you attribute to Nigeria’s porous borders?

Don’t talk about porous borders. America cannot completely secure all its borders. Donald Trump is shouting about building a wall. Will Immigration and Customs cover all our borders? During the COVID-19 lockdown, when interstate movement was banned, was that not the period when trailers were bringing these people and dumping them all over Yoruba land? Was that not when people reacted in some places, attempted to stone them, and they ran away?

You mentioned Ondo and Ekiti as infiltration points, yet the Defence Headquarters insists there are no terrorist bases in the South-West. Do you disagree with the military’s assessment?

Who in the DHQ is talking? Where did these people learn intelligence? I’m not bluffing. Some people were posted to intelligence positions politically. I was there. I was trained. I know the level of training I had in intelligence and security. I had this training outside Nigeria — in Britain and the United States. I learnt how to analyse and predict what is coming. Now, you are talking about the security of Yoruba land.

Beyond border issues, what do you see as the biggest drivers of insecurity in Yoruba land?