Ola Wale
States across Nigeria are racing to recruit and deploy forest guards as banditry, kidnapping, and terrorism continue to spread from ungoverned forests into rural communities and highways. The push follows President Bola Tinubu’s approval of a national forest guard system in May 2025, which directs each state to recruit between 2,000 and 5,000 heavily armed and well-trained operatives to secure the country’s 1,129 forest reserves. The Office of the National Security Adviser and the Federal Ministry of Environment are supervising the exercise, with an overall target of more than 130,000 forest guards nationwide. The directive came after a string of high-profile abductions, including schoolchildren and teachers in Oyo and Borno, and growing evidence that criminal gangs are using forests in the North West, North Central, and South West as operational bases.
Implementation is uneven but has accelerated in several states. In December 2025, the Federal Government deployed over 7,000 forest guards across seven frontline states: Borno, Sokoto, Yobe, Adamawa, Niger, Kwara, and Kebbi, after they completed a three-month intensive training program. The graduation ceremonies marked the first major rollout of the Presidential Forest Guards Initiative. Kebbi State alone passed out 819 newly trained National Forest Guards following nine weeks of training in Kalgo LGA, with Deputy Governor Umar Tafida saying they would be deployed immediately to deny criminal groups access to forest reserves. Gombe State said about 700 recruits are undergoing training at the Mobile Police Training School in Osun, focusing on surveillance, intelligence gathering, and forest security operations.
Other states are scaling up under the federal-backed framework. Kaduna, Edo, Imo, Bayelsa, and Anambra are among those expanding operations, though the pace varies. Ondo State has relied on its Amotekun Corps to enter forest reserves after a surge of kidnappings and killings in Akure North, where armed gunmen killed a traditional ruler and abducted residents. Amotekun Commander Adetunji Adeleye said operatives mobilized additional support and arrested 32 kidnapping suspects in one week, with all security agencies now parading the area. The state government also stationed military officers in Ala forest to restore confidence for farmers and investors.
The urgency is driven by worsening violence. In the past year, attacks linked to forests have included suicide bombings in Borno, landmine explosions along the Maiduguri-Damboa highway, and raids on military bases in Niger and Kaduna that killed at least 17 soldiers. In Ondo’s Akoko axis, gunmen abducted a businessman and his wife on the Isua-Ise Akoko road, with abductors reportedly emerging from nearby forests. The Christian Association of Nigeria warned that forests, highways, farms, and border communities in the South West are increasingly vulnerable to criminal infiltration, saying the region “can no longer afford complacency” and urging governors to strengthen regional security collaboration and community-based intelligence.
The Federal Government describes the forest guard initiative as a “security game changer” designed to reclaim forest spaces and serve as a critical force multiplier in the national security architecture. National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu said the guards would deny bandits and kidnappers freedom of action by taking the fight “to where the criminals hide.” The training is deliberately intensive, combining environmental conservation with tactical field craft, ambush response, rescue operations, and long-range patrol simulations. Trainees also receive instruction on human rights, international humanitarian law, and civilian protection, with the use of force regulated under a jointly agreed arms management framework.
Recruitment has faced bureaucratic hurdles and inter-agency disagreements. More than seven months after Tinubu’s initial May 2025 approval, some states like Kaduna, Ondo, Benue, Kano, Jigawa, and Akwa-Ibom had yet to begin the process, while others had not met the expected quota. A senior official of the Nigeria Forest Security Service said optimism faded because of “bureaucratic bottlenecks within the NSA and the DSS,” which had not agreed on a clear operational framework. The delay caused concern among stakeholders as insecurity worsened, with over 10,000 Nigerians reportedly killed since 2023. Peter Obi questioned whether all 36 states and the FCT would receive approval to recruit 1,000 forest guards each, totaling 37,000, and what would happen to existing outfits like Amotekun in Oyo.
Despite the challenges, the program is expanding. The Federal Government says the guards are indigenous to their local government areas, enabling terrain familiarity and community trust in countering banditry and kidnapping. In the seven pilot states, they are being mobilized to ungoverned forests to support security agencies and check perpetrators of insecurity. The Nigeria Forest Security Service says it has long operated as forest guards and is now being harmonized into the new structure, calling itself the “nucleus” of the initiative. Its Commander General, Joshua Osatimehin, argued that no other agency is saddled with forming security surveillance in the forest, making the service vital to national security.
The broader context includes parallel moves toward state police. The Senate has promised to fast-track the constitutional framework for state policing amid rising insecurity, with lawmakers saying they will ensure “legislative stamina” to keep Nigerians safe and drive out bandits. Meanwhile, the military has rescued 360 hostages from a Boko Haram mountain hideout in Borno’s Mandara mountains, underscoring both the scale of the problem and the type of terrain forest guards are meant to secure. With forests serving as hideouts for JAS fighters, kidnappers, and illegal loggers, states view the guards as essential to protecting rural livelihoods, reopening farmlands, and restoring movement on highways.
For many communities, the test will be whether recruitment translates into effective presence on the ground. CAN has urged the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on security and equip agencies with modern surveillance technology, drones, and intelligence systems. It also advised Christians to exercise caution regarding vigils and late-night gatherings where security cannot be guaranteed. As states rush to deploy, the forest guard initiative represents Nigeria’s most coordinated attempt yet to take back its vast forest reserves from criminal networks, blending local knowledge with federal training and arms to confront an insurgency that has adapted to the country’s ungoverned spaces.
