The state governments in the south-west
say Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police, should not be allowed to
determine the structure of Amotekun.
The Development Agenda for
Western Nigeria (DAWN), a commission set up by the south-west governments, said
this in reaction to comments credited to Garba Shehu, a presidential spokesman.
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.
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.
Oyelele said in a federal system,
states are allowed to have their security outfits as long as they are backed up
by laws.
“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,” PUNCH quoted the director-general as saying.
“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.”
Oyeleye said community policing
cannot be controlled by a single person in Abuja.
“We are operating a federal
structure and Abuja should concentrate on its own community policing. I don’t
want to believe that they are setting up their community policing structure to
undermine what any state is doing,” he said.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com