By SUNTV Global Channel
August 20, 2026
Forest guards deployed to security-challenged communities in Kwara and Enugu states have reportedly abandoned or threatened to abandon their posts, citing unpaid salaries and allowances, inadequate food and insufficient weapons.
The affected personnel, recruited and deployed under government-backed forest security programmes, said they had been sent to dangerous areas to confront terrorists, bandits, kidnappers and other armed criminals without adequate welfare or equipment.
In Kwara, some guards deployed to communities in Kaiama, Patigi and Edu Local Government Areas reportedly began leaving their posts and returning towards their bases. Some claimed they had spent more than three months in remote communities without receiving the welfare support they were promised.
One of the guards said the situation had become so difficult that some personnel had resorted to asking residents for food.
“We were told that when we were deployed to the communities, the government would take responsibility for our welfare. But for more than three months, there has been no food. We have been struggling to survive,” the guard said.
Another operative questioned how guards were expected to confront heavily armed criminals without adequate weapons.
“You cannot send people into areas where terrorists are operating and expect them to survive without proper welfare, equipment and weapons,” he said.
The guards also expressed concern that some criminal groups they may encounter possess more sophisticated firearms than those available to the security personnel.
In Enugu, some recently recruited forest guards also alleged that they had worked for months without receiving salaries or allowances.
A source familiar with the situation claimed that some personnel had been working in communities and local government areas across the state since November 2025 without receiving their expected payments.
The guards said some of them had initially been recruited as volunteers and were later promised regularisation and placement on the state payroll.
Some personnel are reportedly attached to joint security operations involving the military, police, Civil Defence and neighbourhood watch groups.
One guard said some personnel had been deployed to Isi-Uzo Local Government Area, which he described as one of the areas facing serious security challenges.
“We don’t know where the problem is from, whether it is from our commanders or the government,” the source said, while urging the authorities to pay whatever had been agreed.
The allegations come amid the Federal Government’s efforts to expand forest guard operations as part of its strategy to tackle terrorism, banditry and kidnapping in remote areas.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had previously authorised the deployment of trained forest guards to flush criminal elements out of Nigeria’s forests.
The Federal Government subsequently announced the training and deployment of thousands of forest guards under the Presidential Forest Guards Initiative.
However, the reported challenges in Kwara and Enugu have raised questions about the welfare, remuneration and equipment available to personnel operating in high-risk environments.
Kwara has been among the states receiving forest guards because of security concerns around remote communities and forest corridors. The guards have reportedly faced significant risks, with some forest guards and vigilantes killed in previous attacks in the state.
Despite abandoning some deployment locations, the Kwara guards reportedly insisted that they were not refusing to perform their duties.
One operative said their demands were simple: payment, food and adequate weapons.
“We are not saying that we do not want to work. We are saying that the government must provide the things we need to work. Give us food, pay us properly and equip us with the weapons required to defend ourselves and the communities,” he said.
Another guard warned that deploying personnel without adequate welfare and weapons could put both the guards and the communities they are expected to protect at greater risk.
Efforts to obtain a response from relevant authorities in Enugu were reportedly unsuccessful, while the state government had not publicly addressed the allegations of unpaid salaries and allowances as of the time of the report.
In Kwara, the affected guards are calling for urgent intervention over their welfare, remuneration and equipment.
The exact number of guards affected, the total amount allegedly owed and the precise terms of their employment could not be independently verified.
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