Former governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Ogun State in 2003, Dr Doyin Okupe has congratulated the Federal Government over the parley with South West governors on the region’s new security outfit codenamed Operation Amotekun and called for a holistic approach towards the security challenges in the country.
In an open letter addressed to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, titled “Re: Amotekun And Related Matters,” Okupe wrote: “Let me congratulate your government and you personally for your timely and statesmanly intervention on the previously raging matter of the creation of Amotekun as a local and support security appendage to assist the police in protecting the lives and properties of people in the Southwest of Nigeria.”
Okupe, who was once media aide to ex-Presidents Obasanjo and Jonathan, however, expressed worries that the decisions reached at the meeting between the Vice President and the southwest governors might have unintended consequences.
“I foresee in the next few weeks that various state chief executives and regions in the country will come up with their own security apparatuses for their own local environments,” he noted.
He further avowed that the time is ripe to consider the establishment of state police “instead of creating a motley web of mushroom, primitive, and unstandardized local security outfits nationwide.”
He said further: “I am aware that the federal government is seriously considering the establishment of community policing.”