Yoruba nation activist Sunday Adeyemo, widely known as Sunday Igboho, formally inaugurated the Ogun State chapter of the Iru Ekun Security Network on Wednesday, drawing thousands of volunteers to the event.

Footage and photographs shared online showed a large turnout, with hundreds of attendees dressed in matching black attire and caps gathered under tents and along streets in a busy urban area, many recording the proceedings on their phones.

Addressing the gathering, Igboho laid out how the outfit would be structured, trained and run in coordination with government authorities, while placing heavy emphasis on discipline among recruits.

“You must have discipline. Do not engage in reckless behaviour or ruin things just because they have trained you and you have ID card,” Igboho told the gathering.

He said training for members would be handled at the federal level, while the Ogun State Governor’s Office would determine where they are deployed. Successful trainees, he added, would receive identification cards issued through their local government areas.

“Federal Government will decide who will come and train us. The Governor’s Office tell us where they will place us.

“As they wrap up that training, every person will be issued an ID card at the local government level.”

Igboho said the state government had already pledged its backing for the initiative, including plans to fix a monthly allowance for members to cushion the burden on their households.

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“The Governor has also given us assurance. They have given us support here, and they will decide what monthly allowance to provide to us, to support us, because we have wives, and we have children,” he said.

According to Igboho, the wider ambition is to have members across the South-West carry official identification, allowing them to operate within the law while helping to keep order and provide for their families.

He likened the project to the early days of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, which grew from humble beginnings into a nationwide agency.

“This organisation we established, if we execute it properly—just like Civil Defence. They started at the market. We used to call them ‘Little Defence,’ but they did good work with what they were doing. The federal government have now fully established it across all of Nigeria.”