Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
A coalition of Yoruba groups, under the platform of Yoruba Appraisal Forum (YAF), has petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently and decisively clamp down on South West security outfit, Amotekun, to avert imminent bloodshed in the region and across the country.
The Coalition further argued that alleged mishandling of the security situation in the zone by Amotekun, “an unorthodox and strange security arrangement,” especially since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, confirmed the expediency for the federal government to immediately clamp down on the outfit.
YAF alleged that in the name of Amotekun, certain individuals in the South West have been exploiting the overstretched deployment of the police, due to the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, “to sustain unprovoked attacks and intensify the provocation of other Nigerians.”
In the statement issued by the Convener, Comrade Adeshina Animashaun, the coalition revealed that it has written a fresh letter to remind President Buhari of the need to urgently take a decisive step against Amotekun to save the country from those that hijacked the South West security outfit.
It further urged the President to act urgently to prevent the threat Amotekun’s operations would pose on human lives and property of all residents in the region, including the Yoruba, especially now that a group, Yoruba World Congress (YWC), has dragged the region into the membership of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO).
The Coalition, which has been in the forefront of agitation against the operations of Amotekun, which it claimed had been hijacked by some persons for the selfish interest of executing their personal agenda, said its fresh call on the President to stop the South West security outfit.
The members had about two months ago embarked on peaceful protests in different states in the South West against Amotekun, after petitioning President Buhari, leadership of the National Assembly, the Service Chiefs, the Inspector General of Police, the DSS Directors General and the National Intelligence Agency.
It claimed that the latest letter to the President to wield the big stick against the regional security outfit followed the rise in the attacks and killing of other Nigerians residing in the region in recent times.
“We still maintain our stand on the urgent need to stop the Amotekun security outfit and the forces behind it from throwing the entire country into an unprecedented chaos, violence and danger,” the coalition’s reminder to the President on Amotekun states partly.
“We make bold, to state that our continued investigation of the security outfit has further underscored the conclusion that Amotekun is not for any noble cause. From the facts on the ground, the real intention of those who have now hijacked the security outfit is the dismemberment of Nigeria in the nearest future. Recent developments have further pointed to this fact about the Amotekun security outfit.”
The coalition however, alleged in its letter to President Buhari that the attacks on Nigerians of other ethnic nationalities living in the South West, especially those from the North, would soon be deliberately further heightened by those planning to use Amotekun for their selfish agenda of dismembering Nigeria.
It said that the current attacks on the non-Yoruba in the region were deliberately carried out just to provoke other Nigerians in the South West to react and even retaliate in order for those behind such killings to have the grounds for unleashing violence on people of other ethnic groups throughout the region.
The coalition described Amotekun as the military machine planned to be used by the forces that have hijacked it to pursue their hidden agenda, gain sympathy and obtain funding from international bodies such as the UNPO to ultimately dismember and secede from Nigeria.
It argued that contrary to claims by those sponsoring Amotekun, it was not established to provide security for the people of the South West.
“As we said in our previous petition, it is now clear that Amotekun is nothing but the armed wing of the Yoruba groups planning secession of the South West from the rest of Nigeria.
“The burgeoning situation has placed the whole of the South West on edge and this is why we are calling on you to use your good offices to urgently take a decisive action against the Amotekun security outfit before it’s too late.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Amotekun is a smokescreen and the federal government should urgently see beyond this cover. Amotekun is the armed or military wing of those clamouring for Yoruba autonomy and secession.
Amotekun, as stated in our previous petition, is part of the game plan by some people in the South West to cause chaos and ultimately dismember Nigeria. It was not established to provide security for the people of the region.
“We, therefore, demand that appropriate action should be taken urgently against the Amotekun security outfit to stop those who have hijacked it from achieving their devilish plans against the Nigerian nation.”
The coalition, therefore, urged President Buhari to urgently meet the governors of the six South West states with a view to impressing it on them the need to withdraw their support and stop the funding of Amotekun.
“As we stated in our previous petition, we hereby advise that you urgently hold discussions with the South West governors on the concerns we have raised about Amotekun. A stitch in time, they say, saves nine. We must not watch idly as the enemies of the country hide under the smokescreen of running a regional security outfit to engage in activities that are not only inimical to the people they claim to be protecting, but also injurious to the continued corporate existence of the entire Nigerian nation,” the Coalition said.