NPA Director Raises Concern Over Osun's One-Year Withdrawal of Armoured Vehicles by Adeleke’s Government

The Executive Director of Marine and Operations at the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), Engr. Olalekan Badmus, has criticized the removal of armored vehicles from key security points in Osun State by Governor Ademola Adeleke’s administration for more than a year.

Speaking in Osogbo, the director said that despite increasing security challenges in Osun, the vehicles have remained out of service and the government has offered no clear reason for keeping them idle.

Badmus warned that the continued withholding of armored vehicle support could hinder efforts to confront bandits, kidnappers and marauders, especially as neighboring border states face security problems.

He did, however, praise the APC‑led local council executives for supplying patrol vans to security agencies, noting that this will help protect lives and property at the grassroots level.

According to him, “You know what is happening in Oyo State, our boundary, the step taken by the APC‑led council executives at the local level. You see that our party is concerned to ensure that security agencies respond promptly in case, we are actually prepared for it.”

He urged the state government: “I am using this opportunity to beg the state government, the armored vehicles that had been in existence, which were put in strategic locations in the state for safety by the APC government in the past, should be provided back, government should not hoard these vehicles at the critical time.”

He added, “The armored vehicles were taken away by the incumbent government without explanation claiming they are refurbishing them. This is over one and a half years that they have been withdrawn from circulation…”

He stressed further that “We know that this vehicle was used to tackle robbery, kidnapping and other security threats in the past in Osun State. If the government of Adeleke can’t add value to the issue of security, the existing ones they met on ground should be made available for the safety of the people of the state.”