Among the Yoruba (not sure if same goes for other Nigerian tongues), there is a cultural practice of calling the attention of someone going errant back to the path of rectitude. The way this practice goes is: you call the fellow’s name twice (or thrice, if necessary) with a distinctly ominous ring – atimes, you even ask the fellow almost rhetorically: ‘How many times did I call you? – and with the last mention of the name drawn out with a more emphatic ominousness. That is what we are doing here with the Western Nigeria Security Network, codenamed Amotekun, especially the Oyo State chapter.
Amotekun is an initiative of the South-west states to help themselves against worsening insecurity that the conventional agencies, especially the Police, have seem far too stretched and disconnected from local communities to effectively tackle. The outfit is projected as complementary and not parallel to the main agencies; but it has grassroots flavour needed to engender communal ownership believed to be key to dealing with the insecurity scourge, which unfortunately is lacking in the conventional agencies. Amotekun in Oyo State has, however, been reported perpetuating abuses that Nigerians saw in the police and rejected.
Last week, a commercial motorcyclist was killed in Ibadan after being hit by a stray bullet from an Amotekun operative. In an account of the incident by which it fired the trigger-happy operative, Amotekun said the victim was shot late Wednesday evening by agent Kazeem Afolabi when the corps responded to a distress-call over a purported armed robbery attack at Total Filling Station, Mokola. Agency commandant, Col. Olayanju Olayinka (rtd.), explained in a statement that though the operatives found there was indeed no robbery attack, a crowd had gathered at the scene and Kazeem, feeling threatened by that crowd, opened fire to allegedly scare the people away. But his shot hit 23-year-old Tosin Thomas, who later died. That killing triggered a protest the following morning by colleagues of the late Thomas, which caused severe traffic gridlock around Mokola roundabout while shop owners hurriedly shuttered up for safety. Olayinka affirmed in his statement that the agency found Kazeem liable for acting outside its protocols and had summarily dismissed him and handed him over to the police for prosecution. “We want to reassure members of the public of our internal mechanisms for dealing with erring officers. We will continue to train and retrain our officers on best practices and rules of engagement,” he added.
Before this incident, there were recent reports of high-handedness and extra-judicial killings by Amotekun agents, prompting Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka to warn that the outfit must not transform into something like the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the police. He advised that the operatives be trained on ethics so that they do not end up on the wrong side of history.
Hmmm. Amotekun!! Amotekun!!!! How many times did Hardball call you? A word is enough for the wise.