Operation Amotekun Targeted At Herders, Fulani Leader Claims

The Operation Amotekun is targeted against Fulani people in the South-West, the Sarkin Fulani of Oyo State Salihu Kadiri has claimed.

Naijaparry reports that Kadiri described the security outfit, launched in January, as sectional during a chat with the press at the inauguration of the Oyo State Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ) Exco held at the Jogor Centre, Ibadan, Oyo State.

According to him, the formation of Amotekun was one-sided and set up against the Fulani herders, claiming that the security outfit needed to be put in place rightly.

He called on South-West governors to include Fulani and other ethnic groups as personnel of the planned security network.

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“For now, we, the Fulani in the South West, are not in support of ‘Operation Amotekun,’” he said. “With its present composition, Amotekun looks more sectional, it looks as if it was meant to fight the Fulani herders who the farmers are accusing of using their cows to destroy their farms. That is the truth.”

Top Lawmaker Backs Outfit

Meanwhile, the Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has said that Operation Àmòtékùn was launched due to the “vile manifestations of insecurity that trouble our citizens.”

Gbajabiamila made this known during his address to members of the House on Wednesday before the commencement of their debate on the rising security problems in Nigeria.

He said: “Overcoming our overwhelming national security challenges now requires that we be willing to accept new approaches and consider novel ideas.

“Neither the security institutions nor political leaders can afford to hold on too tightly to a status quo whose frustrating limitations are painfully evident, whilst reflexively rejecting innovations that may improve our fortunes if properly implemented.

“Recently, the governors of Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, Oyo and Ondo states, took action to implement a regional security network to support the efforts of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) in preventing crimes and protecting the lives and property of our citizens who live, work and travel through these states.”

“The establishment of Àmòtékùn, as the network is called, has met with commentary from across the country, both for and against.

“Too often, it has seemed to me that lost in these interactions is the hard, brutal and unavoidable fact that Àmòtékùn and other such state or zonal interventions in other parts of the country are a desperate response to the vile manifestations of insecurity that trouble our citizens, depriving them of the peace and security that give life a meaning.

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“I do not know that Àmòtékùn or whatever iterations of it may follow, represents the ultimate or perfect solution to the problem of insecurity in our country. Nobody does that.

“What I do know with absolute clarity and certainty is that the localised manifestations of insecurity across the different parts of our country call for unique and localised approaches that take those peculiarities into account.

“What I also know, is that whichever approach we seek, we are obligated to work within the limits imposed by the Constitution to which we all swear allegiance.

“Above all else, I am certain in the knowledge that doing nothing is not an option. We have a responsibility as legislators to support the best efforts of those who act with noble intent to protect our citizens.”

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