Forest guards deployed to security-challenged communities in Kwara and Enugu states have abandoned or threatened to abandon their posts, citing months of unpaid salaries, starvation and weapons inferior to those carried by the criminals they are sent to confront.

The affected personnel were recruited and deployed under state and federally backed forest security initiatives to tackle terrorism, banditry and kidnapping in remote areas.

In Kwara State, guards deployed across Kaiama, Patigi and Edu Local Government Areas reportedly began withdrawing from operational locations after spending more than three months in remote communities without receiving promised welfare support.

In Enugu, some recently recruited guards alleged they had worked for months without salaries or allowances, with some claiming they had not been paid since November 2025.

The abandonment has raised fresh concerns about the Federal Government’s Presidential Forest Guards Initiative, a key component of the national security strategy following President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of a security emergency in November 2025.

Government figures indicate more than 9,000 forest guards have been trained across several states under the programme. Kwara has received about 1,000 trained guards deployed to vulnerable communities.

One Kwara guard said they accepted deployment based on government assurances of welfare support that never materialised.

“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.

He said guards who approached residents for food were told that feeding them was the government’s responsibility. “We cannot continue to beg people who are themselves struggling to survive,” he added.

Another operative questioned how guards could 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.

Some guards said they were being sent against criminal groups carrying significantly more sophisticated firearms. “We are being asked to confront people who are heavily armed, but many of our men do not have weapons that can match what the terrorists are carrying,” another guard said.

One operative said the risks were particularly high because forest guards often operate in isolated areas where conventional security forces may not respond quickly.

“We are the people who are expected to enter these forests and gather intelligence or confront the criminals. If something happens to us there, who will come quickly to rescue us?” he asked.

In Enugu State, sources familiar with the situation said some personnel had been working in communities across the state since November 2025 without receiving expected payments. Several guards were initially recruited as volunteers and later promised regularisation and placement on the state payroll, but many are still awaiting implementation.

Some personnel are attached to joint security operations involving the military, police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and neighbourhood watch groups. Guards deployed to Isi-Uzo Local Government Area, described as one of the areas facing serious security challenges, said the uncertainty surrounding their remuneration had become increasingly discouraging.

The guards insisted they were not refusing to work. “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,” one operative said.