Kalejaiye to FG: Southwest requires ‘Amotekun’ to be secured

Mojisola Lawal
High chief Kehinde Kalejaiye, a district head of Otumara 11, Ojo-oniyun, Apapa road and its environs has said that the Federal government has no right to declare the Southwest regional security outfit, Amotekun as illegal.

The attorney-general of the federation, Abubakar Malami on Tuesday declared Amotekun as illegal, saying security remains the exclusive preserve of the federal government.

In an exclusive interview with newsexplorersng.com, Kalejaiye said the AGF erred in making such pronouncement especially when similar security outfits operate in other parts of the country.

Making a case for Amotekun, he said, “The heightened insecurity in the southwest region demand proactive response from governors in the region. We have had enough of kidnapping, armed banditry and other crimes. And now that our governors seem to have found solution to the insecurity challenges, why is the federal government stopping it?

It is not that the southwest is violating any law for establishing Amotekun neither is it that they are stylishly creating a state police. But it is about the protection of lives and properties of southwest citizens and ensuring that peace reign in the region.

From what I know about Amotekun, they are to complement the Nigerian Police and other military formations. We all know that the task of securing the country is overwhelming for the police as there are countless number of unresolved murder and cases of kidnapping before them.

The murder of the daughter of the leader of Afenifere, Pa Reuben Fasoranti is very fresh in our memory. The police are yet to find the killer. Apart from this, the region record, almost on a daily basis, numbers of kidnap incidence.

And now that we have woken up to the challenge of protecting ourselves and assisting the police, there is no sense in anybody antagonising such laudable initiative except if such persons are the perpetrators of evils in the region.”

Kalejaiye further stated that similar civilian security outfits operate in the north, he quizzed, why is the one in the south considered illegal?

He said, “The Hisbah and the Civilian Joint Task Force are not illegal. They even bear arms and have been operating without the government raising eyebrows. But when Amotekun berth, the FG becomes apprehensive, over what if I may ask?

I am beginning to see the FG through its attorney general acting a script. It seems they have a game plan to destabilise the southwest region, if not, why the fuss about Amotekun?

“The FG should not be seen playing discordant tune and politics with the future and well-being of the southwest. The time is now for Amotekun. We need our own security outfit to be handled by personnel that know the inside-out of the region. It is only through this that criminality and kidnapping can be eradicated.”

Kalejaiye, however, implore all the governors in the southwest region and other eminent Yoruba sons and daughters to lend their voices to the call for Amotekun because it is only through the initiative the region can be secured.