There has been a clamour for state policing in some parts of the country, and this had led to the creation of Western Nigeria Security Network codenamed Operation Amotekun in the southwest states.

The federal government had on Thursday approved N13.3 billion for the take-off of community policing in the country.

Appearing on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television show on Tuesday, Shehu was asked why it took long for the approval to be made.

Responding, he said: “For President Muhammadu Buhari, the concern has always been about the spread and abuse of weapons in the hands of police.

“He said repeatedly that, look, a lot of the states that had clamoured for state police, many of them are unable to cope with salary payment. If you hire a community policeman and give him a gun, and keep him for five, six months without salary, what do you expect? Efforts have been taken so that situations of this kind do not arise. So, therefore, there is a standard national procedure and prescription for each of the states to comply with.”

Shehu also said Amotekun cannot operate outside the structures laid down by the police authorities.

“Whatever name they go by, Amotekun or whatever, they will be streamlined and they will be run in accordance with the structure as defined by the inspector-general of police,” he said.

“They will be localised, they will be owned by local communities, they will be managed by them. You know, the constitution of the committee has been defined to include council chairmen, religious leaders, traditional leaders, civil society groups and all of that.

“They can choose their own nomenclature but it doesn’t make a difference. There is a general structure for all state and local council community policing mechanisms and this should abide in the states.

“So, we are going to have a single type structure community policing across the country and whatever is not in line with this does not have a place in the new scheme of things.”

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The coalition, which was the brain behind the 2018 quit notice to the Igbo living in the North, said Saturday that the North is even more genuinely entitled to be angry in view of the current high level of security challenge in that part of the country. It cited the incessant attacks on and killings of innocent citizens by gunmen, abductions, destruction of communities and terrorism.

Spokesman for the group, Abdulazeez Suleiman, said in a statement in Kaduna that the North has persevered in a dangerous security environment fuelled by outside interests that thrive on the supply of deadly merchandise including hard drugs and other harmful substances and the proliferation of arms in the region. The group wondered why the SouthWest had to wait until after the conclusion of the 2019 elections before coming up with Operation Amotekun. But it said the security outfit should function within the ambit of the law.

“We are convinced that there is indeed a justifiable reason for Nigerians to seek to take extra measures for self- protection and preservation in the prevailing circumstances,” it said.

“This need is necessitated by the apparent failure of the government to discharge its primary duty of protecting the lives and properties of all citizens. Recall that in 2015, Nigerian voters trusted Buhari to lead our nation through and out of its limitations, into a future in which we will live secure lives and pursue livelihoods in a united Nigeria whose human and material resources will be protected by leaders.

“Regrettably, five years on, the story is that of poverty ravaging communities, hunger stalking millions of homes, inflation making life difficult, people losing jobs, businesses closing down, infrastructure decaying, young Nigerians losing hope, which are all drivers to the current security situation.

“Worth recalling also, is that long before the current deterioration, the government had been advised severally to take definite steps to end the conflict between farmers and the pastoral communities which it shunned. Instead government came up with various ambiguous policies in the form of Ruga, livestock transformation, etc that all ended in controversy, and were never implemented.

“At a point, the CNG and Northern Elders Forum were compelled to consider advising the pastoralists to return home to safety at which the presidency intervened by renewing the vow to protect all citizens’ rights to live and thrive anywhere in the country.

“Having evidently failed to do that, the ensuing level of fear and uncertainty pervading the country now sparks concerns that government’s willingness and the quality of coordination of efforts, management of resources and the capacities and integrity of the mechanisms charged with the nation’s security do not do justice to the magnitude of the problems, or address the sense of urgency in dealing with an escalating disaster.”

On the launching of Operation Amotekun by the SouthWest, the CNG said: “While we do not dispute the right of the South West to initiate the Amotekun as a necessary alternative to secure their safety in the face of government’s control lapses, we nevertheless understand the need for such measures to abide by due processes that conform with relevant laws of the land.

“In this regard, CNG recognizes the authority of the Federal Government to take steps to disband all militias and armed groups everywhere in Nigeria to ensure that no group has the capacity to challenge the State in its prerogative to maintain law and order, and protect citizens’ lives and properties.

“The acceptable position remains that only legally constituted outfits and lawfully sanctioned organizations under the direct control of the Federal Government, as recognized by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, can be so organized, armed and fitted.

“Any extra judicial arrangement by which regions set up state-sponsored armed militia groups may therefore not be tolerated as it only confirms suspicions of a wider agenda similar to that of IPOB, to cajole other parts of the country to submit to their ambition for political ascendancy.

“In particular, the idea of Amotekun on the claim of deteriorating national security at this point, raises the question of why, if they are sincere, the South West leaders fought so hard to secure the return of this same administration for another term, notwithstanding the security lapses that manifested long before the elections of 2019.

“If indeed the aim of the South West leaders is to use Amotekun as weapon to coerce the nation into ceding the presidency to them in future, CNG finds it pedestrian and tactless as brigandage will only jeopardize their chances the way IPOB did to South East politics. On the contrary, any section of the country that is able to present a credible alternative shall certainly gain the support of Nigerians without the need for resorting to bluffing.

“In the prevailing circumstances, the North is even more genuinely entitled to be angry at the rate its people are attacked, killed, towns and villages vandalized, innocent citizens including children abducted, and terrorized, families traumatized and communities displaced on a daily basis.

“All this while, the North has persevered in a dangerous security environment fuelled by outside interests that thrive on the supply of such deadly merchandise as hard drugs and other harmful substances and the proliferation of arms into the region.

“With the current level of anger, frustration and uncertainty that is fueling communal disharmony and mutual distrust, CNG believes that the North should as well take similar steps to arrange for the protection of the region and its people from these daily attacks and destructions.

“Thus, failure of the authorities to provide proof of its capacity to protect citizens in all parts of the North as minimum evidence that they are serious about their responsibilities, would leave the people with no option than to resort to forming an Arewa Security Initiative to secure their people’s lives with the proposed code name “Shege ka Fasa.”

“For the avoidance of doubt, notwithstanding that Nigerians may not have quarrels with region taking measures to protect its people, they are at the same time unlikely to give in to calculated manipulation, coercion, intimidation, aggression or undue show of force in whatever guise.

“On its part, the North remains confident that it will not shy away from any process leading to any form of national reassessment that may arise now or in the future, in the context of a genuine dialogue without hidden agendas or preconditions.”

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The agenda is the security outfit, Operation Amotekun, recently launched by the states in the zone.

The minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, and the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, are also attending the meeting.

Recall that Amotekun had generated controversies.

The Federal Government had opposed it as it declared it “illegal” in a statement released through Malami’s office.

The government had said it had a policy on community policing, which had been approved by the President Muhammadu Buhari as against the regional Amotekun format.

However, the governors had insisted they would not dump Amotekun and sought rather to meet with the Presidency in the hope that the differences would be ironed out.

The post VP, South West govs begin meeting over Operation Amotekun appeared first on New Mail Nigeria.

He made this position against the backdrop of the statement credited to the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, in which the Minister claimed the outfit was illegal.

The Governor claimed that the Minister’s comment was misguided, as according to him, he was not empowered to make such declaration.

A statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Makinde, Taiwo Adisa, indicated that the Governor said this during a visit to former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abeokuta.

He added that since the Attorney-General’s position was not conveyed through any official correspondence, it should be taken with a pinch of salt, as the Governor stated, government cannot be run on pages of newspapers or through the social media.

According to Governor Makinde, Operation Amotekun has not in any way violated the Constitution, but rather, it was an intervention to narrow the gaps in security in the South-West.

He added that given the centrality of security to governance, the Governors of the South-West designed the Operation to complement efforts of the Nigerian Police and other security agencies.

He said that the Operation was designed to help in combating insecurity in all the nooks and crannies of the South-West states of Nigeria.

Governor Makinde said: “You don’t run a government on social media. If I see a letter or receive a call from the Attorney-General of the Federation saying that Amotekun is illegal, it will be a different reaction. For now, I have been reading on social media just like you and I have not seen anything official to that effect. Besides, I don’t think that in a country like Nigeria, the Attorney-General should just wake up and make his own law. He may interpret and advise the President about legal issues but I have not seen anything that gave his office the power to make such declaration.

“This outfit [Amotekun] is complementary to the effort of the Nigerian Police and other security agencies. In Oyo State, the government has four pillars; namely education, health, security and expansion of our economy through agribusiness. So, security is a major pillar for us and we believe we cannot have any development in an atmosphere that is not secure.

“If you look at investments, the money coming into an economy is like a coward; if such money sees anywhere that is not secure, it will fly. So, security is key and security agencies are doing their best but there is still a gap. Just like in most sectors of our body polity, we do have gaps; in education, health care delivery and the rest. We believe playing complementary roles will help to narrow those gaps.”

Speaking on the purpose of the visit to former President Obasanjo, Governor Makinde maintained that he was in Abeokuta to pay a visit to the former President as part of the tradition to pay homage to elders to wish them a happy and rewarding New Year.

He said: “As you all know, it is a New Year and, traditionally, one should go out to greet elders to wish them a happy and rewarding year. So, I came here to greet Baba and wish him the best for this year 2020.”

Governor Makinde, who stated that his administration had been recording successes and peace because the people were supporting its programmes and policies, promised not to take the people for granted.

“On governance in Oyo State, if you know what you want to do, you just basically follow your plans. Before we even came into office, we produced a document, entitled Oyo State Roadmap for Accelerated Development 2019-2023, which serves as a framework for accelerated development in Oyo State. The document is still there, it is a life document. People can still go there to assess our government.

“Oyo State is peaceful and we have the support of the people rallying behind our programmes and policies. We appreciate them for that and we will not take them for granted,” the Governor said.

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