…Says Amotekun Backed By Law
By Gbenga Abulude
Ondo state Governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu on Wednesday said the Amotekun Security outfit would not be collapsed into the Community Policing recently approved by the Federal Government.
Akeredolu who is also the Chairman of the South-west Governors’ Forum, also declared that south-west governors would not pay community policemen.
The governor was responding to what the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of Research and Planning, Mr Adeleye Oyebade, said, Tuesday on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily programme, that states will be responsible for the salary and upkeep of community policemen.
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Oyebade said special constables would be recruited as community policing officers as guided by Section 49 to 50 of the Nigeria Police Act.
He also added that community policemen would not bear arms but would do more of intelligence gathering and tackling non-violent crimes.
But Governor Akeredolu speaking on the same program today said Amotekun has come to stay and asked for a collaboration between the South West security agents known as Amotekun rather than collapsing it, which was already being backed by law.
He said, “It will never be accepted, it is not our thinking. We have a law that sets this up. If the DIG feels otherwise, there is always a place for us to ventilate it. We are not afraid of this. The law says Amotekun will operate under its own law; it is not going to be subsumed under any setup.
“We will work together, it is collaboration, not that it will be subsumed. The law is there and if anybody finds a fault in that law, we can go to court and ventilate whatever position in it. The DIG is totally wrong, Amotekun will not be subsumed under the community policing.
“We have a President who has a listening ear, if IG is not ready to listen to us, we will go and meet the President; we will continue to make the case, we will not collapse Amotekun into Community Policing”.
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Akeredolu who also disagreed with the DIG on governors being responsible for the salaries of community policemen said, “I am sure that they are taking this thing too far. Governors will have to pay? We have discussed this thing before and we told them it is not going to be possible. Are you increasing our allocations? Which state governor will accept that? Other states might say, ‘Yes, we will pay’, but we will not pay.
“Let’s be fair to ourselves, we are running a federal system. Where is that money going to come from when we are struggling to pay salaries? Nobody has ever come to us to say we will pay salaries (of community policemen) anyway and if they come, we will write to say, no, we don’t have extra money to do that.”
Akeredolu also added that the South West governors were trying to make a case on the need for Amotekun to carry arms but it has not been approved yet.
“These are disciplined people and if they carry arms, it will be for protection. We will keep having this discussion with the police and at the national level. But if the Nigerian Police find it difficult to prevent herders who carry weapons with their cows, some of them have prohibited arms like AK-47 and you have not been able to prevent that, so, what stops disciplined people like Amotekun (operatives) to carry arms for protection,” he said.
It would be recalled that on August 20, Federal Government approved the sum of N13.3 billion for the take-off of Community Policing initiative across the country.
