A federation of socio-cultural organizations in Yorubaland, Egbe Ifokanbale Yoruba, on Wednesday in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, made a passionate appeal to Southwest leaders to resist any attempt to discredit the “Operation Amotekun” jointly initiated governors of all the six states in the region.
The Chairman of the association, Comrade Laoye Sanda, made this appeal while speaking at the 20th remembrance anniversary of late Comrade Ola Oni, a pro-democracy activist, who was known for his radical activist.
Speaking at the event held at the Western Hall of the Oyo state secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan, Prince Sanda said ‘We are fully in support of our governors. The point has been made, Amotekun is not police and its members are not taking over the functions of the police, but their role is to protect, get information and give such to the police and other security agencies for proper prosecution.
“If it is illegal the presidency would have cautioned the APC governors in the region before they launched it. Now, there is no going back, Yoruba people are ready to secure their region against any form of internal or external security threat”.
Also speaking at the event, Dr. Doyin Adebowale, Special Adviser to Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo state, said since the state governors are the chief security officers in their states, their initiative aimed at ensuring the lives and property of the people of their states should be supported by the federal government.
“The idea of Amotekun is not new in the southwest, when we face serious challenges last year, we came together as one irrespective of party affiliation and we move into the forest and our forest are safe now, we are nor antagonizing the police, we are not fighting SSS, we collaborate with them we give them information, when we arrest we take them to the police, so where is the conflict, why is he suddenly interested in how we secure our region, what is his interest. Before they launch it, Dr Kayode Fayemi chairman governors forum met with the National security adviser.”
Dr. Adebowale, who represented Governor Akeredolu at the event, maintained that “ it is not in our own place to engage in any controversy with anybody, he is the attorney general but I am a lawyer I do know that his office cannot make law for Nigeria, his office cannot in on what we do, his office can initiate a court process for the whole of the country, he can stop it at any time by the virtue of 1 of the constitution, that is where it stop”
“It is laughable that somebody who claims to a lawyer a senior advocate of Nigeria will be talking as if he enjoys certain pass to pronounce on the illegality or otherwise of any action his office is not the court of law. He is just a Malami, an appointee of Buhari, Akeredolu and other governors are elected, that is the difference, and they are the Chief Security Officers of their respective states .
You don’t have to be a lawyer to know that somebody somewhere is taking you for a ride, who is he, he has been in this country, there is HISBAH police, last week it was in the news that HISBAH police arrested a policeman who was drinking beer in one hotel, in Adamawa they have, in Kano and other state, the civilian JTF we understand the peculiarities of that terrain, they bear arms in Borno, go to the eastern part of the country, they have their vigilante
The guest lecturer Engineer Professor Sabitu Adegoke in his paper entitled Enhancing Economic Development of Yorubaland said Yoruba people should shun acrimony, enmity and hatred for one another and forge a common front to fight poverty and return Yorubaland to the path of prosperity
Wife of the late political activist Mrs Kehinde Ola Oni, Comrade Moshood Erubami , representatives of the South West governors and different Yoruba groups were at the event
