Lagos Assembly set to amend Neighbourhood Safety Corps Law to accommodate Amotekun

The Lagos State House of Assembly on Thursday began amendments of the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps law to accommodate the South West Security Network otherwise known as “Amotekun.”

A public hearing towards the enactment of the law to give legal backing to the security initiative has been slated for Monday, 24th February, 2020.

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After a comprehensive debate of the Bill by the lawmaker, the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa committed the Bill to the House Committee on Information, Publicity, Security and Strategy under the chairmanship of Hon. Tunde Braimoh for public hearing. The committee was however, not given a time limit to report back to the House which has adjourned sine die.

The Clerk of the House, Mr. Azeez Sanni had informed the House of a correspondence from the State’s Commissioner for Justice, Hon. Moyosore Onigbanjo dated Wednesday 19th February, 2020 on the amendment of the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC).

 The Bill entitled a “House of Assembly Bill No. 5 Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC) Amendment Bill 2020 and for Connected Purposes” was read for the first and second time by the Clerk of the House.

The Majority Leader of the House, Hon. Sanai Agunbiade (Ikorodu 1) while giving the overview of the Bill, explained that the Bill is an executive bill, but that it is predicated on the private member bill that established LNSC, which according to him, has been working well.

He added that the Bill is incorporating the concept of a more dynamic and more strengthened security platform than what they had in Lagos State.

“It is meant to energise and strengthen the security that we have in Lagos State based on the challenges in the state and in the South West.

“It tries to create a unit out of the LNSC to be referred to as Amotekun Corps to take charge of security in certain areas such as in the forest, highway and other places to protect us against hoodlums, cattle rustling and others.

“It will have a commander and Amotekun Corps would bear arms with the permission of the police. They will cooperate with other security platforms in Ondo, Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti and Osun states,” he said.

Agunbiade stressed that LNSC has a clause that will provide for Amotekun.

In his contribution, Hon. Oluyinka Ogundimu (Agege 2), while expressing support for the Bill, commended the foresight of the Lagos State House of Assembly on the security of the state.

Ogundimu said the law covers wider areas and made internal security a priority. 

He however, called for local content in the bill, adding that they needed people with native intelligence, and that whoever would be appointed as the commander of the unit should be approved by the House.

Hon. Olumuyiwa Jimoh (Apapa 2) said that there is a problem of nomenclature in the Bill.

Jimoh stated that the Nigerian Police had been existing before independence and that the people had been talking about their reforms.

“The colonialists formed the Nigerian Police for us in 1930 and we have not made efforts to form our own security force.

“The population of men of the Nigerian Police is small. We should encourage men of Amotekun to be armed and to be able to arrest and prosecute.

“South Africans have their own native police that checkmate other security forces. We can have the military wing of Amotekun in Lagos,” he said.

In his view, Hon. Rotimi Olowo, (Shomolu 1) said that Amotekun started in Lagos with LNSC, and that the federal police lacked character as their structure has not helped to suppress crime.

“Security is local and it should be localised. The issue of kidnapping and others give credence to the need for community police.

“They should be allowed to use guns. They can reduce armed robbery attack, kidnapping and others. We should allow more money into the system.

“The recruitment of Amotekun should be localised. They should work in their neighbourhood so that they could apprehend criminals in their areas,” he said.

Also supporting the bill, Hon. Rasheed Makinde, Ifako/Ijaiye 2 stated that security is local and that the country was getting close to having state police.

“We are setting a pace for other political regions in Nigeria. They can assist when there is any accident on our highways. There would be a collaboration amongst the six western states and beyond,” he said.

Hon. Tunde Braimoh (Kosofe 2) said that governance is about giving meaning to the yearnings and aspirations of the people.

Braimoh stressed that what the people of the South West wanted now is security.

“People keep talking about Amotekun because that is what they want now. Amotekun emanated from the House with the LNSC, which has now transformed to Amotekun. Section 14 (2B) of the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 emphasised security. There are issues in the bill, but they would be looked into later,” he said.