365 Days In Office, One Mandate: How LSSTF ES/CEO, Ogunsan is Reshaping Lagos’s Security Map
By Oki O. Samson, Trek Africa Newspaper
A year after taking the helm, the ‘Civilian General’ Dr. Ayodele Ogunsan has turned his mandate into measurable momentum. On Friday 31st October 2025, exactly one year ago, a press statement bearing Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu’s decision made its way across Lagos: Dr. Ayodele Ogunsan was to become Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF). Ogunsan had previously served as a respected voice on the Fund’s Board of Trustees since 2020, Now he would hold the pen.
In substance, this was a handover of responsibility, accountability, and urgency that the security of Lagos State must not be allowed to decline. He inherited an institution admired by Lagosians, administered for about two decades by his predecessors, Mr. Fola Arthur Worrey and Dr. Abdurrazaq Balogun and is already shaped by exceptional leaders, Pres. Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, Gov. Babatunde Raji Fashola SAN, Gov. Akinwunmi Dapo Ambode, and Gov. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu.
By his own account, the Governor told him to go beyond what was written, so that the state’s chief security officer could rest while a trusted ally kept watch. Ogunsan took the instruction literally. What followed was not a transition. It was a dramatic jump in the tempo of impact.
Support: Oiling the Wheel of Progress
In his first Year of public service to the government and good people of Lagos State, the Executive Secretary/CEO of Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF), Dr. Ogunsan set on an ambitious goal to boost the funding support of the security funding agency. Since the LSSTF does not get subventions from the government purse, there must be ingenious methods to make the system work.
A retail donation fundraising push that welcomed students, youths, retirees, government employees, private staff, and the informal sector raised over 240 million naira within six weeks, proof that Lagosians will invest in their own safety when given a credible channel. A private breakfast meeting with the Executive Governor which had the top echelon of business and corporate executives in attendance was followed by a windfall of support. This included N1 Billion donation from telecommunications giant, Globacom and midstream oil firm, SAPETRO as well as 1 billion worth of support from Mikano International. A corporate donation of ten vehicles worth over three hundred million naira arrived from CIG Motors while Dongfeng Motors have also donated 7 vehicles so far and many others.
Dr. Ogunsan has also set out for foreign missions resident in Lagos State to pull their support behind the LSSTF. He has also personally paid official courtesy visits to the British High Commission, the Chinese Embassy, and the Germany Consulate for training support, equipment, and other forms of support.
Yet, he recognizes and assures all donors that generosity without stewardship leads to decay. This is why he introduced the LSSTF Monitoring Team to track, maintain and account for every asset handed to a security agency. The signal to donors was deliberate: your gift will be used, maintained and seen.
Within a week of taking the helms, the new Executive Secretary/CEO, Dr. Ogunsan mustered a support from business mogul and philanthropist, Sir Kesington Adebukunola Adebutu GCON to singlehandedly fund the long-term yearning of the Lagos State Government for a permanent site for the security funding agency. That promise was attained within 10 months, as the state-of-the-art Sir Kesington Adebukunola Adebutu Security Trust Fund Building was commissioned on Friday 23rd October 2026 by Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Equip: Security Equipment and Machinery on the Road, In Air, On Water, On the Rail, and With Drones
The first hundred days set the tone. Eighty operational and patrol vehicles entered the Lagos security space. Armoured Personnel Carriers that had sat idle were restored to service. Patrol vehicles were donated to three state universities, LASU, LASUSTECH and LASUED. He has also inaugurated the LSSTF-CACCOV as a youth-led initiative to nip crime, cultism and vices in the bud by reaching directly to schools, campuses, and communities to interact and educate with the young population.
The Fund has routinely equipped the Nigeria Police Lagos State Command and other tactical units such as the Rapid Response Squad, Lagos State Taskforce, Eko Strike Force, and MOPOL with practical equipment and gadgets to imbue their efforts. The Police’s new initiative, the Violent Crime Response Unit Lagos State Command was also equipped with tactical vehicles and uniforms at its launch, while the agency returned months later with further vehicles, raincoats and boots.
Bulletproof vests, ballistic helmets, Raincoats reached the three arms of the Nigerian Armed Forces viz. the Army, Navy and Air Force formations in Lagos. In August, NNS Beecroft received fresh protective gear for sensitive months ahead.
Further, practically every security agency such as the Nigerian Immigration Service, NSCDC, NDLEA, LNSA, FRSC, LASTMA, community-focused agencies like the Vigilante Guards of Nigeria, Man O’ War, and other support agencies like the PCRC serving in Lagos have gotten one support or the other in terms of trainings, operational vehicles, ballistic helmets, bulletproof vests, raincoats among others.
Within his first year at the helm of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF), Dr. Ayodele Ogunsan has moved to strengthen security across key transportation corridors, combining direct operational support with technology-led surveillance. There is a consistent helicopter aerial surveillance coordinated by the LSSTF and the Police Airwing Command to comb the entire stretch of Lagos State in order to identify crime scenes and flush out criminals from hideouts. At the Nigerian Railway Corporation’s headquarters in Ebute-Metta, he presented two patrol vehicles – one each to the Railway Police Command and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Railway Command to reinforce commitment to improving rapid response and patrols along the rail network. On the waterways, he visited the Maritime Police Command in September and donated 30 ballistic helmets, 30 bulletproof vests, 30 operational boots and 30 raincoats, while pledging a patrol pickup vehicle for the Command. He has also publicly confirmed that drone operations were already active in Lagos, indicating that “we are migrating to technology. We have drone operations now going on effectively in Lagos. Before the end of the year, you will see it in reality. We have aerial surveillance through helicopters.” The interventions reflect a practical expansion of the Fund’s security focus.
Train: Investing in the Person Behind the Equipment
Dr. Ogunsan’s conviction about the fact that people, not equipment, are the greatest security asset is unflagging. In March 2026 the Fund under his leadership launched a statewide, multi-agency training programme that has run every month since, with a target of well over a thousand operatives by December. Commanders have noted with pride that their officers who have resumed after such sessions have come back with a wealth of knowledge and experience and are transferring what they learned across their departments. The training program is not just centered around strengthening the core deliverables of safety and security, but also about the personal well-being of the officers themselves. The modules have included items such as personal finances, health and wellness, family life, nutrition, to mention a few.
On his part, Ogunsan vowed “I have five years to run this organisation,” told one cohort, “and for that period, there will be training every month.” At the October edition, the Executive Secretary/CEO of LSSTF, Dr. Ayodele Ogunsan, hinted that sustaining the monthly training throughout his tenure is to ensure that there is constant delivery of measurable value for security agencies among security agencies rather than become another institutional activity marking the calendar.
He emphasised that the ultimate measure of the investment is a safer state, stronger collaboration among agencies and a security workforce equipped to protect lives, property and public confidence.
What the First One Year Say:
The claim that Lagos is Nigeria’s safest and most secure state is not in doubt. The LSSTF’s phenomenal One Year of constant, visible action under the leadership of Dr. Ayodele Ogunsan has made the claim even harder to dismiss as an accident.
One year in, Dr. Ogunsan has set an enviable standard for the office of the CEO of a Nigerian public service agency. With four years remaining under the leadership of ‘The Civilian General’ Dr. Ogunsan, the work has only just begun. This is because he treats Lagos security as a ministry, donations and support as a trust, and time as the one resource no leader can recover.
