As states in the Southwest move to perfect the legislative processes leading to the take off of Operation Amotekun, Nigerians from other parts of the country have been urged to be open minded about the security outfit.
Making the call in Abuja on Monday, a security expert, Jackson Lekan Ojo, urged non South westerners not to see the Amotekun Corps as exclusively for the protection of people of the Southwest.
According to him, Amotekun Corps, when it finally comes on stream, will protect both citizens and people from other ethnic groups resident in all parts of the Southwest.
Ojo also said the concept of the Corps embraces the protection of people of diverse ethnic groups who may find themselves traveling through any of the six Southwest states to their various destinations.
The security expert maintained that Amotekun will not discriminate when it comes to dealing with criminal elements of Southwest origin anywhere they may be found.
Ojo said, “Contrary to what many people outside the Southwest may think, Amotekun is meant to protect all law abiding citizens regardless of their ethnic origins.
“Amotekun is for the protection of lives and property of those people living in the Southwest and those people that could be traveling to the Southwest from other parts of the country. It is not for the protection of the Yoruba race alone”.
Narrating a personal experience, which he said reinforced his belief in the need for the sheeting up the security outfit, Ojo said sometime in 2019, his mother was to undergo surgical operation in Osun and the doctor called him to come down to sign the consent documents.
“But before I could set out from my base in Port Harcourt, my mother called to warn that it’s my traveling down to Osun that would kill her but not the ailment.
“I was shocked by her statement and I asked why. She expressed fears that I could be kidnapped anywhere in Osun state before I could get to Ilesa where she was being admitted to hospital.
“My mother insisted that I must not come down unless I wanted her dead, that there was no way I could get to Osun state without being kidnapped and that they could kill me if I resisted being kidnapped. I got scared. The security situation had got that bad.”
Stating that the need to set up Amotekun was a response to the general insecurity in the land, Ojo urged the Federal Government not to resist plans by other states or geopolitical zones to set up their own internal security arrangements.
According to him, rather than see such zonal security arrangements as an front to its constitutional role of protecting the citizens, the Federal Government should see the initiatives as practical moves to complement its efforts in securing every part of the country.
He cautioned that preventing the states and zones from putting in place such interval security arrangements might result in people resorting to self help, a development he said, could worsen the security situation in the country.

By Gbade Ogunwale