THE South-West state governments, through the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN), have stated that the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, should not decide the structure of the Western Nigerian Security Network, codenamed Operation Amotekun.
DAWN, a commission established by the south-west governments, made this known in reaction to comments credited to the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.
In an interview on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, on Tuesday, Shehu was quoted to have said the structure of the security outfit would be determined by the IGP while speaking on the approval of N13bn by the Federal Government for community policing across the 36 states of the federation.
“Whatever name they go by, Amotekun or whatever, will be streamlined and they will be run in accordance with the structure as defined by the Inspector-General of Police. They will be localised; they will be owned by the local communities. They will be managed by them,” he said.
Amotekun was established by the governments in the south-west in response to rising insecurity in the region.
In response to Shehu’s comments, Seye Oyeleye, DAWN director-general, said Amotekun would only be guided by the laws passed in the south-west states.
Oyeleye said in a federal system, states are allowed to have their security outfits as long as they are backed up by laws.
He stated: “The Houses of Assembly in the six states in the south-west have passed laws to guide the operations of Amotekun in their states. I don’t know what he (Shehu) meant except he is saying that the order of the Inspector-General of police supersedes the states’ laws.
“Amotekun is guided by the states’ laws. The setting up of community policing should not in any way disturb the operations of Amotekun. In any federal system, there are multi-layers of policing and the more the merrier; Nigeria needs policing at different layers.
“The operations of Amotekun are guided by the laws duly passed by the Houses of Assembly in the six states in the region and the bills were assented to by the governors.
“When I read what was credited to Garba Shehu, I found it strange. The Ondo state Amotekun is fully operational. Even Garba Shehu contradicted himself while saying this. He said, on the one hand, the IG would supervise Amotekun, and on the other hand, he said Amotekun was guided by individual state laws.”
Source: (Punch)
