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General News of Tuesday, 21 January 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

Amotekun protest takes place in Lagos after Buhari regime declared security outfit illegal

Operation Amotekun Operation Amotekun

Members of the Yoruba socio-cultural group, the Odua Peoples’ Congress (OPC), Yoruba World Congress (YWC) etc have taking to the streets of Lagos in protest against the Buhari regime for describing Operation Amotekun as illegal.

Amotekun, a security outfit launched by leaders of Southwest, was described as illegal by the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.

Protesting against the the Federal Government, the group gathered at Gani Fawehinmi Park in Lagos State in what they called "Amotekun Solidarity Walk".

The protest is slated to take place in the six states of Southwest namely Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Lagos, Info and Ekiti.

Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State recently stated that the security outfit doesn't interfere with the duties of the Nigerian Police.

Fayemi said: “Governors, whether we like it or not, have a duty and responsibility, which are clearly spelt out in the constitution. The security and welfare of citizens are the number one job of any governor. You may define that in whichever way you want, but that is the number one job we have.

“The people within my jurisdiction are saying ‘we don’t know what you are doing, you are funding the police, you are buying vehicles, you are buying security gadgets, you are even paying allowances, yet we don’t get enough security.’ There is nothing unique in what we have done.

“I am glad with my colleagues in the North-Central. I was reading in the paper where Governor Simon Lalong was saying, “We haven’t seen the details of what they did in the South-West, but I think this is something we are working on, a similar arrangement in our own area. Amotekun is nothing but a confidence building measure to include our people in community policing arrangement.

“Penultimate Friday, Governor Zulum was handing over vehicles to military, police, and the Civilian Joint Task Force (JTF). Please, what is Civilian JTF? I am sure you know what Civilian JTF means. Why is Civilian JTF very relevant in the North-East? They know the terrain. They know the culture. They know the people. They have better intelligence than even the security agencies.

“This is because those who are responsible for this problem live among them. Members of Boko Haram are not from outer space, they are from Nigeria. And they live among people. Why are we denying? What we are doing is not an exception at all. So, the notion that if you allow governors to do this they would abuse it by using it to intimidate opponents is not tenable.

“One of the reasons this Amotekun is regional is that we don’t want anyone to reduce it to a machinery of oppression against their people. But some governors were not there. Was that an indication that they were not fully behind it? Every governor was involved. We started the process in June last year after we had a spate of kidnappings and banditry in the South-West.”