•Oyetola cautions against politicisation •Southwest attorneys-general to meet
From Victor Oluwasegun, Bisi Oladele, Tajudeen Adebanjo and Toba Adedeji
Critics of the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN), code-named Operation Amotekun got more knocks yesterday from notable Yoruba leaders, including two elder statesmen Second Republic Senator Ayo Fasanmi and former Works and Transport Federal Commissioner (Minister) Femi Okunnu.
Others, include Osun State Governor Gboyega Oyetola, who cautioned against politicising the establishment of the security outfit by the six Southwest states of Lagos, Oyo, Ondo, Osun, Ogun and Ekiti; the Director-General of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN), Seye Oyeleye and National Deputy President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Bishop Francis Wale Oke.
The cleric urged Southwest governors to expedite action on the enactment of proper legal framework for the security network.
Chief Fasanmi, who spoke in a telephone chat with reporters in Abuja, accused anti-Amotekun forces of colluding with insurgents, even as lauded the security initiative of the Southwest governors.
The All Progressives Party (APC) chieftain said the initiative of the governors was timely and necessary, adding that the security outfit would act as a check on the increasing spate of insecurity in the region.
He, however, cautioned the governors not to abuse the outfit but use for the protection of lives and properties in the zone.
The elder statesman described as unfounded the fears expressed in some quarters that Amotekun may be employed by some governors for political purposes.
His words: “The Amotekun security outfit established by the South West Governors is the best solution to the increasing and alarming rates of insecurity in the region.
“Innocent people are being killed on daily basis like animals unchallenged. The governors have done well, the critics of the security outfit are collaborators of insurgents, if not, how can any right-thinking person be criticising such a laudable initiative?”
Warning the governors to be careful and reasonable on how they deploy the outfit, Fasanmi said: “The security outfit should not be used recklessly, they should not use it for their interest, rather it should be used judiciously for the interest of all and sundry.
“With the security outfit on ground now, the worst insecurity days are over, the criminals and their collaborators will be chased out and dealt with.”
Fasanmi insisted that so far, no law of the country has been breached by the governors since the State Houses of Assembly would make enabling laws to give the outfit legal backing.”
Alhaji Okunnu, who threw his weight behind the formation of the WNSN, described the outfit as the governors’ answer to the danger of insecurity in the Southwest.
He listed the activities of itinerant herdsmen as one of such dangers.
The former minister noted that the herdsmen had ravaged farm lands not only in the traditional habitat but also in others parts of the country.
Okunnu told The Nation in a chat: “Herdsmen have no right to come to my farmland. The farmland which I have spent money to plant all sorts of crops. Not even these days when oil is not providing sufficient money for the economy of this country.
“These days, when the government itself is advocating return to the agriculture and that we should go back to farm. People are going back to agriculture but encountering insecurity and the same government is not providing adequate security.
“Now, the state governors in Southwest decided to secure their states through operation Amotekun, the same Federal government is saying it is illegal. You see the contradiction.”
Operation Amotekun, he insisted, would do a lot to secure the region, explaining: “It is an answer to that danger, the danger of insecurity caused by the herdsmen in these days. Insecurity of life, property especially landed property… Herding of cattle has been with us since 40s without issues but the danger the herdsmen pose now is that they now carry arms; this was because people started to resist the invasion of their farmland by the herdsmen.
“Some of these herdsmen are not Nigerians; they come from outside the country and the government has the responsibility to control their movement. Due to the failure of the government to curtail their movements, the herdsmen now carry arms which they are not licensed to… and Muhammadu Buhari’s government has failed to stop them from invading people’s farmlands and attacking them. So, the governors have the right to come up with a solution, which is the operation Amotekun.”
Alhaji Okunnu, who said, he did not support the idea of state police at the initial stage, explained that he now have a change of mind towards it.
“I have for many years been opposed to state police but I have been converted to the demand for state police because the Federal police had failed to provide security for the lives and property of the people,” he said.
In Osogbo, the Osun State capital, Governor Oyetola who described the raging debate over the WNSN as a healthy and welcome development, warned against politicization of the security outfit on the altar of religion and ethnicity.
He said doing so will be unhealthy, dangerous and counter-productive.
In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Ismail Omipidan, the governor said Amotekun is a collective response by the Southwest to the spate of armed banditry, rape, kidnapping and other violent crimes that have suddenly become a past time in the zone.
Oyetola noted that for anybody to claim that it was an agenda against a particular faith or adherent of a particular religion was not only preposterous, but also in bad taste.
Besides, the governor said that his administration has not recruited men into the outfit.
The statement reads: “For the records, no recruitment has been carried out so far, especially in our dear Osun State.
“Therefore, we should not constitute ourselves into opposing a project we all clamoured for in response to existential threats for which some of the governors in the region have been called out and vilified in the past.
“Rather, we should rally support for Amotekun by coming up with strategies to fine-tune it with a view to bridging any communication gap between the Federal Government and the South-West governors over the security outfit.
“Section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) is clear that the security of lives and property of citizens as well as their welfare is the primary purpose and responsibility of government, be it state or federal.”
Oyetola expressed his administration’s commitment to protecting the citizens, adding that every reasonable and responsible individual in the state indigene must join government’s collective resolve to protect the lives and property of the citizens.
The DAWN director-general allayed the fears of some elements, saying the outfit will serve all ethnic groups in Southwest states.
Speaking on a programme titled: “Frank Talk” on Rave FM in Osogbo, Oyeleye added that “mischief-makers who didn’t lift a finger when Southwest states were having security challenges are the ones opposing the outfit.”
He went on: “Insecurity is not our way of life in the southwest. This is the region that has been exposed to the outside world for about 700 years ago.
“Mischiefs makers are the ones who are making comments that Amotekun is ethnic police to protect the Yoruba. In the western region, not only Yoruba live here. Every region lives here because we are an accommodating region. If you live here, under the armpit of the law, Amotekun will also serve you. It won’t single out a Yoruba man.
“Amotekun is not for the territorial integrity of Nigeria, it is the work of Nigeria army, police e.t.c. Amotekun is to provide cover for the southwest region in terms of complementing the work of the police.
“At some point last year when the southwest states were going through several security challenges, people were afraid at the state of kidnapping, car hijacking and killings on our roads; the governors came together to proffer solution to the prevailing occurrence in the region.”
Accoring to him, Amotekun is just one of the many solutions proffered by Southwest governors in 2019, stating the DAWN Commission was mandated to organize a security summit.
He said: “We came together, the security experts proffer medium/long term solution. This is what we did when had a fou-day summit. One of the recommendations is the setting up of the joint security network by the six states.
“Part of the recommendations includes: engaging our youths properly, to find jobs, developing entrepreneurship skills and many more. There is a lot of solution we pastored. But the immediate is to stem the challenges is setting up of Amotekun.
“Nigeria is a federal country. The appellation is the federal republic of Nigeria. The security we offer in 1990 can no longer be the security in 2020 even the criminals have moved up, criminality is changing on a daily basis. What we have in Nigeria as at the moment is a one-side type of solution.
“We have a federal republic still sitting with one police to cater for the whole country. You have police headquarters in Abuja, they are the one policing all small towns and villages across the school.
“Nigeria has approximately 400,000 policemen for a population of over 200 million. Proper policing in the 20th century is gravitating toward community policing. The major orientation behind Amotekun is community policing. We are involving the locals in the security. The local will serve as the brain behind the existing Police.
“Britain that gave us the police we are operating has devolved then why are we afraid to devolve security in Nigeria?”
Attorneys-General and Commissioners of Justice in the six Southwest states are to meet over the outfit.
The meeting will hold in one of the states any time from today (Thursday). The states are Ogun, Ondo, Lagos, Oyo, Osun and Ekiti.
It was learnt that chief law officers will deliberate on the legal aspects of the newly launched security outfit in relation to the Nigerian constitution and statutory security agencies.
They will determine if there is need to enact a new law to back the outfit in every state or otherwise.