SAN Supports Regional Police In South West, Urges Other Regions To Protect Their People

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Mike Ozekhome has thrown his weight behind the establishment of a joint security outfit, Amotekun (leopard) initiated by the six governors of the South West States in the country.

The six south west states include Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti, Ondo and Osun.

Ozekhome, who is also a constitutional lawyer made his position known in an exclusive interview with THE WHISTLER, while calling on other regions in the country to follow the example of south west in other to protect their people.

Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti had in a New Year message to his people on January 1, 2020 said the security outfit which will commence work on Jan. 9 would complement the efforts of the regular security agencies to tackle the kidnappings, ritual killings and other violent crimes ravaging the region.

“Ekiti is very active in this initiative which will go a long way in securing the people and protecting the state

“The fact remains, however, that criminality cannot be totally eradicated even as we are working meticulously at reducing it to the barest minimum in Ekiti State, and the evidence is there for all to see and acknowledge that we are making steady progress

“Since we are not an Island, we are working with neigbouring states to strengthen our security architecture,” Fayemi said.

According to Ozekhome, his support and call for other regions of the country to set up their own regional security agencies is to prevent Nigerians from being overrun by external forces, as the Nigerian police at the centre was grossly inadequate.

He said: “It is a good omen that the South West governors have finally seen the need to set up the much desired security outfit called Amotekun to protect their zone. It reminds me of the old Agbekoya of those days.

“Each geopolitical zone should now set up its own vigilante group, South South should do that, South East should do that, North West, North East and North Central should do that so as to prevent Nigerians from being overrun by external marauders and external forces.

“That is why over the years, there have been clamours for state police and local government policing. The federal government police at the centre, under sections 214, 215 of the constitution is no longer working, because the police at the centre are distant from the people they’re supposed to be policing, and the number is grossly inadequate.

“We need local policing by the local people who know their terrain and their needs. That is what the Amotekun has been set up to do now. With that each geopolitical zones protect itself from external aggression and external forces. At the end of the day the final solution is the breaking up of the Nigerian police at the centre, creating state police, creating local government police.

On whether the security outfit can calm the security chaos in the country, the legal luminary added:

“When power meets power, then there will be mutual respect. Mutual respect will come in when aggressors know that they will meet with equal force with the aggressee.

“If an aggressor continues to come to your house to kill you, to maim you and he knows that you are helpless, he will continue, but if he knows that you are also ready, then that will repel them. That will serve as a lesson for others not to carry out unnecessary aggression. It’s a question of defending your home. There is nothing wrong in that.”