Osun State Governor, Mr Adegboyega Oyetola has urged other geo-political zones in the country to establish their own security outfit just like the southwest did with the Amotekun corps to tackle insecurity in their zones.
The Governor gave this advice while speaking yesterday at the Second Annual Colloquium of the Sultan Maccido Institute for Peace, Leadership and Development Studies, held at the University of Abuja, he advocated the immediate decentralisation of the Nigeria Police Force, insisting that the current structure was worsening the insecurity situation in the country.
The governor reviewed the country’s security challenges and concluded that one sure way to confront them once and for all was to restructure Nigeria’s current centralized policing system to meet the nation’s current realities.
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Oyetola told his audience that Amotekun was a child of necessity, meant to complement the conventional security agencies to effectively tackle banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery among other crimes.
‘Amotekun became necessary because the nation’s conventional security agencies are overstretched and sorely underfunded.
‘The Police once confirmed the sorry state of its manpower when it said the Force needed 155,000 additional hands to effectively police the nation.
‘The nation’s security agencies as presently constituted are too centralised and too far from the grassroots to adequately provide the required security for the nation.
‘Worse still, they are unfamiliar with the terrains where crimes take place. It is our belief that our people understand the topography of their communities more and can govern them better.
‘The nation’s expansive forests have unfortunately become the hideouts of bandits, kidnappers, and other criminals.
‘With the establishment of Amotekun, the forests of the South West are now better policed.
‘The issues that make Amotekun inevitable in the South West are the same in other regions of the nation. Other regions may wish to emulate the South West to put structures in place to rid their regions of crime.’
The governor went on to identify the sources of insecurity as ‘poverty which creates a gulf between the rich and the poor; inequitable allocation of resources’.
He said the situation had pitted one region against the other.
He blamed the current resort to self-help to the high level of injustice in the land.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK