Amotekun will not be under FG, Akeredolu, Makinde insist.
– Steve Ovirih.
South West Governors , speaking through Governors Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State and Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, have insisted that the South West Security Network (SWSN) codenamed ” Operation Amotekun” has come to stay and will be operated independently without being subsumed by the community policing arrangements of the Federal Government.
While speaking in a Channel Television Programme, Sunrise Daily, monitored by thepolity.net, Governor Akeredolu had said the Amotekun security scheme has come to stay in the South West and as far as the acts establishing the scheme is concerned, it will operate independently of any Federal Government’s policing structure and it will function according to the laws that established it.
Governor Akeredolu who is known in Ondo State as the ‘Governor General of Amotekun’ noted that the security network has started operations in Ondo State and it has helped to resolve pockets of teething internal crimes such as kidnapping , which has become a recurring index in the norther senatorial district of the state. Praising the commitment of members of the Corp to stamp out violence and criminality from Ondo State, Governor Akeredolu said all the necessary wherewithal have been provided for them to enable them to function without let or inhibitions.
Governor Rotimi Makinde who asserted the Independence of Amotekun in a meeting he had with the Chairmen of Local Government Areas and Local Council Development Authority Areas at the Government Secretariat, said the South West Security Network was solely the potent resolve of South West Governors and it was jointly agreed on that the Amotekun security scheme will be operated without any fusion into the Federal Government’s Community policing agenda.
The Governors noted that the security outfit will operate within the confines of the laws that established it and since its establishment laws did not state it could be subsumed by any centrifugal policing structure, the Inspector General of Police should perish the thought of making the regional scheme an offshoot of the Federal Government community policing idea.
Chairman, South West Governors Forum, Rotimi Akeredolu also stated that members of Amotekun scheme will bear arms as modalities towards ensuring that is being worked out. Akeredolu expressed his disappointment over the idea of State governments funding community policing project, stressing that the fund for such luxury does not exist. He said except Federal Government allows devolution of more money to the component states, no state can fund such Federal Government project for now.
