President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has pledged to decisively confront Nigeria’s lingering security crisis with the establishment of well-armed state police and forest rangers, signalling a tougher, more decentralised approach to combating terrorism and banditry across the country.
The President made the declaration on Friday while addressing members of the National Executive Committee of the All Progressives Congress at the State House Conference Centre in Abuja.
Tinubu said the Federal Government was fully committed to restructuring the nation’s internal security architecture to ensure threats at the grassroots are swiftly and effectively neutralised. According to him, the proposed state police system would not be a symbolic reform but a properly equipped force capable of responding to modern security challenges.
“We are going for state police. We will also deploy forest rangers. They will be armed. We must defeat terrorists and bandits, and we will do just that,” the President said.
The renewed pledge comes amid rising attacks by armed groups in several parts of the country, particularly in rural and forested communities where security agencies have struggled to maintain a sustained presence. Tinubu acknowledged public anxiety over the spate of killings and kidnappings, assuring Nigerians that his administration would no longer tolerate business as usual.
He explained that the introduction of forest rangers would help plug security gaps in vast ungoverned spaces that criminal elements have long exploited as hideouts and operational corridors.
Although the proposal for state police continues to attract scepticism, especially over fears of abuse by state governors, the President appeared undeterred, stressing that national stability must take precedence over entrenched concerns.
