We need ‘Amotekun’ to compliment Police in South West, because of challenges they face – Abiru
Chief Whip of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Rotimi Abiru has reiterated the commitment of the state legislature to ensuring that the Bill on “Amotekun” comes to reality in the state to complement the efforts of the police in securing the people of the South West region.
The lawmaker acknowledged the lack of capacity of the Police in its current form to police the entire Nigeria.
Abiru who is representing Shomolu constituency 2 at the State Assembly stated this at his Ikeja office during a chat with some journalists.
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According to him, “The Amotekun arrangement fashioned around the Lagos State Neighborhood Safety Corps (LNSC) is different from that of other states because Lagos is far ahead, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have our own security challenges.”
“In the past in Lagos State, we have had to battle with kidnapping, robbery and other criminalities such as the “Badoo”. But now our challenge is the issue of cultism even among secondary school students and artisans in the neighborhoods,” Abiru stated.
The Parliamentarian declared that security challenges such as kidnapping, assassination and armed robbery would no longer be tolerated hence, the coming together of state governors in the region and the formation of “Amotekun” which he said has come to stay.
According to Abiru, “the Lagos State government has foreseen the current security challenges hence the Lagos State Neighborhood Safety Corps law was enacted in 2016 and the Corps members came into being in 2017. What the Lagos State House Assembly is doing now is to ammend the existing law to accommodate “Amotekun” in the existing arrangement.
The Ikorodu, Lagos born lawmaker however, clarified that, “Amotekun is not state police, neither is it community policing, therefore the politicisation of the initiative by some groups is baseless and uncalled for. Amotekun is a special squad to help the Nigerian police in discharging its duties and responsibilities.”
Abiru expressed confidence that the Federal Government through the Inspector General of Police would grant licensed arms for the operation of Amotekun.
Commenting on the Amotekun symbol, Abiru explained that the Cheetah image of the security squad which is the fastest animal in the world goes to describe the potency of the Amotekun initiative.
The lawmaker stressed that they are going local on the Issue of Amotekun so that people can monitor them just as much as is expected from the special squad in the area of performance.
The Assembly Chief Whip also took note of submissions by some participants at the public hearing which advised that the oath on Amotekun operatives be done in the traditional way against the Qur’an and the Bible which according to the proponents will make the operatives more committed and that minimum education qualification of members must be secondary school leaving certificate while the hunter in the locality should also be given a chance.
Abiru was full of hope that good laws will always follow the visions of the South West governors. He however, urged all the security Agencies to uphold the tenets of their existence for the betterment of Nigeria and Nigerians.
