By Olufemi Ade Oyedele
Sir: Expectedly, Operation Amotekun launched on Thursday, January 9, by the governors of the Southwest states to tackle security challenges in the region notably highway robbery, killing for rituals, kidnapping and other criminal activities has since stoked a firestorm.
Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, in opposing the establishment of the outfit says that: “the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) has established the Army, Navy and Airforce (sic), including the Police and other numerous paramilitary organisations for the purpose of the defence of Nigeria”. He says “no other authority at the state level, whether the executive or legislature has the legal authority over defence”.
Malami erred! The Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN) did not establish Operation Amotekun for the defence of Nigeria.
Operation Amotekun was established for the security of the Southwest states of Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo. If the condemnation of the establishment of the much-needed security outfit stands, then the non-governmental security operatives at our airports, stadia, forests, supermarkets etc, would have become illegal. So would private security operatives in schools, hospitals and offices.
There are about 380,000 police officers in Nigeria with a population of over 200 million people. Zone 2 Police Command covering Lagos and Ogun states has a combined police strength of 67,757 officers and men. It is non-contestable that about 380,000 police officers and men are not adequate for the maintenance of peace and security of the country. It is the reason the federal government planned to employ about 260,000 police officers and men.
Under the guidelines establishing Operation Amotekun, each of the six collaborating state shall donate 20 vehicles, making a total of 120 for the operation of the paramilitary organisation. The vehicles shall be dispatched to the respective states.
The headquarters of the operation shall be at Ibadan, Oyo State. The size of the troops would be determined by what each of the six states had capacity for and based on the level of security threat in each state. Every state government will fund the personnel in its state.
It is the funding capacity of a state that will determine the size of manpower operating in it. The idea behind Operation Amotekun is in a bid to localise policing. The operation of Amotekun shall be seamless with each state interfacing with the other.
Read Also: Amotekun will protect peaceful herdsmen- Afenifere
It is not another name for ‘Agbekoya’; it is similar to Kano’s Hisbah Police, Lagos State Neighbourhood Security Corps, Ogun State So Safe Corps and the Executive Outcomes, a private security outfit in Borno State.
Before the establishment of Operation Amotekun, the Southwest governments found it difficult to perform the primary function for which they were voted into offices – securing the lives and property of the people.
There were countless highway robbery cases which claimed so many lives including the late Olufunke Olakunri, daughter of 94-year-old Pa Reuben Fasoranti.
Prof Olayinka Adegbehingbe, kidnapped in May 2019, along the Ife – Ibadan Expressway was not set free until his herdsmen-kidnappers collected N5.045 million. Same with another Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife don, Dr. Femi Omisore, kidnapped on his way to a funeral ceremony in Oye Ekiti.
Although rescued in the early hours of Saturday, May 23, 2015, alongside nine others by vigilantes at Esure Ekiti, his driver was however, killed.
The Badoo boys (cultist ritual killers) ravaged Ikorodu between 2015 and 2017. It took the collaboration between the police and Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) before the menace could be tamed.
The Baddo boys were killing at will for money rituals. In March, 2017, two separate attacks led to the deaths of seven individuals: a family of three, as well as a grandmother and her three grandchildren at a church.
Yet, section 33. (1) of our constitution says: “Every person has a right to life, and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his life…”
Where lies all these promises of the constitution without adequate security force?
The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 199 states that “Nigeria shall be a Federation consisting of states and a Federal Capital Territory” in Chapter I, Part I, Section 2 (2).
A federation is a group of states with a central government but independence in internal affairs of the states. Our efforts should be towards mutual respect for each other, recognizing our diversity and multi-ethnicity, and not fear of each other.
- Olufemi Ade Oyedele, Osogbo, Osun State.
Leave a Reply