Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
The senior elders’ forum of Yoruba Council of Elders on Tuesday raised the alarm that the approval given to the take off of community policing system in Nigeria is an indication that the Federal Government plans to frustrate the Amotekun Corps initiated by the governors of the six states in the South West zone of the country.
The forum made tube disclosure after a meeting held in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
Governors of Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti, Osun, Ondo and Lagos had on January 9, this year launched the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN), which has been domesticated in each of the states in the zone and code named Amotekun Corps.
Col. Ade Agbede (retd), who addressed journalists after the meeting, said: “We, elders in the South West are worried about the continued insecurity, particularly in the South West zone of the country. We also expressed our displeasure over the continued bamboozling of our security plans, particularly the issue of Amotekun to which they(FG) are raising a competing community policing, which they knew all these years and they did not practise until this Amotekun was brought to bear.
“We also note with serious concerns the rate at which bandits are taking over all parts of the South West, starting from Ilora, Akoko, Remo and other places and the level of impunity by which these bandits operate. We are also not very comfortable by the silence of FG over the operations of these bandits.