Gbenro Adesina
Ever since the birth of ‘Amotekun’, a security outfit established by the six South West governors: Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo in Nigeria, to combat various forms of insecurity in the region, the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has been working assiduously to kill the outfit or in a situation where this is impossible, then, render it a toothless bull dog. The outfit became necessary considering the inability and failure of the various national security outfits, particularly, Nigeria Police to secure the nation from criminals. It has even been accused of compromising the security of the nation, as various local and international agencies including The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and United Nations (UN), have argued that police is the most corruption institution in Nigeria. More pathetic is the deadly operations of the herdsmen, who destroy farms, kill farmers, rape married and unmarried women without spearing minors. Added to this, are the Fulani bandits, who introduced mass kidnapping for ransom in the region. Worst fear has equally greeted the people of the region as intelligent reports from the US among others have warned the region against possible attacks from terrorists, particularly, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), who are currently recruiting for the deadly mission.
When the efforts to eradicate Amotekun failed, the Federal Government came up with other strategies to render it ineffective. First, it came up with community policing, which the Inspector General of Police, (IGP), Mohammed Abubakar Adamu and Minister for Justice and Attorney-General, Abubakar Malami (SAN), spearheading it and demanded that Amotakun be collapsed under it. This was vehemently rejected by the people of Southwest. Then the Federal Government point blank put it to the people of South West that it will not allow Amotekun to use firearm that is more than Dane gun. This position is not also unacceptable as the people of the region strongly hold that security of life and property cannot be secured by ordinary gun, when the criminals are in possession of AK 47 gun as the least weapon. It is even a common knowledge that Fulani herdsmen, who are minor, are flamboyantly armed with AK 47 in the region, which has made the South West people opine that people of the South West are being deliberately weakened to be susceptible to attack and are maintained in Nigeria as second class Nigerians.
Leading the voice against the Federal Government’s position on Amotekun are Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and his Ondo State counterpart, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu. Commenting on this development, Makinde and Akeredolu pointed out that Amotekun will be an independent security outfit just like any other security outfits in Nigeria. Makinde, who had approved N59.78million as a take-off grant for Amotekun, unequivocally maintained that the security network would be solely controlled by the state government.
He cited the instance of Okeho to justify his position saying, “At Okeho the other day, armed robbers robbed a bank and thankfully the community rose to the occasion and they assisted to apprehend those people. They combed the forest. That is why I will continue to say that Amotekun is here to stay with us. And it will not be under the control of the federal establishment. It will be under our control. Security of our people is extremely important. Nothing can take place in an atmosphere of insecurity. Oyo state is a very large area. In terms of land size, we are more than all the states in South-East Nigeria, so we have a lot to do to secure this area”.
Blunt as usual, Akeredolu explained, “We will not collapse Amotekun to community policing. Amotekun will stand on its own. There is law creating Amotekun security. There cannot be intimidation. We are not people that can be intimidated. We are not people the IGP will give order to. It is not possible. If IGP is prepared to discuss, let us discuss on this matter. Amotekun is different and community policing is different. All of us will collaborate. The issue that is left is about carrying arms. We will pursue it and make them understand at the end of the day. If the IGP will not understand, he will leave one day, another will come and understand. If they feel irritated about Amotekun, it is not fair. We have taken them through this, of what Amotekun is all about and the states have gone ahead to spend money to create it. We have our laws. We will live by it and abide by it and if anybody feels otherwise about that, let him go to court and challenge the law. There is no need for us to bicker about this matter and we are saying with all sense of responsibility, Amotekun will stay and we will go ahead to negotiate. We will discuss with police on the issue of arms and at a point in time, just like they did with the civil defence and a few other paramilitary outfits that are carrying arms, I know the time will come and if he says no, we are prepared to continue to use non-prohibited arms at least with our blood and everything to secure our people”.
Also, the President of Yoruba World Congress (YWC), Professor Banji Akintoye, supported the positions of Makinde and Akeredolu.
According to a statement issued by YWC, Banji said, “We support and reinforce the stand of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State and his Oyo State counterpart, Governor Seyi Makinde, that the Southwest security outfit codenamed Amotekun shall not be subsumed under the control of the Nigeria Police Force”.
He said, “Amotekun, as rightly posited by the governors, is an independent security outfit necessitated by the clear danger of murderous herdsmen internationally accepted as terrorists, heartless bandits and sundry criminals who have turned Yorubaland into killing fields. It was also the failure of the existing security architecture to tackle the menace and secure life and property in the Southwest region that led to the clamour for Amotekun by the generality of our people. It makes no sense, therefore, to put the same Amotekun under an organisation that has proved incapable and inadequate to provide the much-needed security in the first place. Putting Amotekun under the Nigerian Police hierarchy is a ploy to weaken it and sabotage the strident clamour of the people of the Southwest for peace and security in their homeland”.
Continuing, “It must be noted that the entire Southwest rose like one man to demand and support Amotekun and to resist all efforts to truncate its birth. We, therefore, see the efforts to twist the hands of Yoruba governors to whittle down Amotekun as a continuation of the same ploy to abort this regional security outfit. We salute the stance, courage and principled stand of Governors Akeredolu and Makinde on the independence of Amotekun and call on other Southwest governors to follow suit. We also call on all Yoruba sons and daughters at home and abroad to stand up in support of Amotekun and speak out against efforts or plans to muffle it. We demand that the security of the Southwest must not be compromised in any form and under any guise. We, therefore, call on those trying to toy with Amotekun to desist forthwith”.
“We have the inalienable right to security of life and property. We therefore stand solidly with the Southwest governors as they strive to protect life and property. As a federation, different layers of security outfits should collaborate, rather than one outfit trying to prevent the others from contributing their own quota. The Nigerian constitution supports supplementary security outfits as has been the case in parts of Northern Nigeria. The central policing system has failed. Community and or multi-layer security system is an idea whose time has come. Trying to prevent it is like swimming against the tide with dire consequences”, he concluded.
