Insecurity: Ohanaeze backs South West’s Operation Amotekun

.We’re planning similar outfit -Northern Govs

…Lalong briefs Buhari on Plateau attacks

Ohanaeze Ndigbo on Friday lauded the South West for launching Operation Amotekun security outfit.

Ohanaeze said Amotekun was necessary because the country has an armed forces and air force controlled by officers from one ethnic group who ought to have retired from service.

Ohanaeze reacted in a press statement through Emeka Atamah, the Media Adviser to the President General, Chief John Nnia Nwodo (rtd.)

Commending South-West for the bold step, the pan Igbo socio-cultural organisation said people no longer need to be told that their security was in their own hands.

The statement read in part: “The launching of Operation Amotekun by the South West is laudable.

“We have in Nigeria today ethnic controlled Armed Forces. Our Army and Air Force are commanded by officers who should have retired according to establishment laws. In law, they are functus officio. The violation of our extant laws in this regard is simply to satisfy a desire for ethnic hegemony. To do this, their more competent seniors are retired not minding the huge resources the nation invested in their training.

“Posting, promotion, arrest, prosecution of offenders are carried out with an ethnic mindset. Ethnic cleansing appears to influence premature retirements. If you are a Fulani herdsman you have a license to kill and escape arrest.  Our troops fighting Boko Haram have low morale and motivation,” Ohanaeze said.

It lamented that in the South East, mere traveling on the highway attracts an illegal tax to law enforcement agencies, sometimes carrying POS machines to exploit cashless travellers who are forced to make transfers to private accounts.

“Who can resign his private security to this kind of arrangement?

Can you run a federation where the Federating units cannot control their domestic security? If a President, in violation of our immigration laws and extant treaties governing the movement of persons in our sub region and continent, orders all Africans, including Boko Haram recruits, to come freely into our country without screening, won’t you be scared that everywhere is now a war front ?

“What about the 12 million children out of school and the over 60 million unemployed youths waiting to vent their anger on all of us? What of our decapitated judiciary and moribund bar association who sit helplessly as court orders are refused by government and citizens waste in illegal imprisonment unless Americans bark?

What about our press who would rather report stories than champion causes as it is done in other democracies?”

Ohanaeze saluted the South West governors, saying that nobody needs to tell any Nigerian today that “security is in your own hands!”

Meanwhile, barely 24 hours after “Amotekun” was launched in Southwest, Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong, has thrown his weight behind it, saying it is nothing to worry about.

He said a similar security outfit for the North was in the offing. According to the governor, the latest gunmen attack that left no fewer than 13 persons dead in Mangu Council Area of the state necessitates going back to the drawing board to find a lasting solution to insecurity.

Governors of the 19 northern states said Friday that they would not adopt wholesale, the regional security outfit, Operation Amotekun, launched by the South West States recently in efforts to curb insecurity.n

Chairman of the Northern Nigerian Governors Forum, NNGF, Simon Lalong disclosed the position of the northern states governors to State House Correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Lalong who is also the Governor of Plateau state said he was at the Aso Rock seat of power to brief President Buhari on the latest attack, which claimed 13 lives in the state.

He said the recent attack was caused by cattle rustlers, leading to reprisals, with innocent citizens falling victims.

The governors said a committee was working on new security architecture in the northern states, which will be based on community policing, as a way to provide sustainable solution to the insecurity in the region.

Governor Lalong noted that all the northern states were neck deep in efforts to operationalize state police and not regional security outfit.

According to him, the peculiarities of the south are different from  those of the northern region, adding that several committees had been put in place by the NNGF and are all working tirelessly to address the spare of insecurity in the north.

Asked if his colleagues in the North Central would consider putting up a security outfit like Amotekun in the south west, he replied:

“When you talk about North Central,  I am chairman of Northern Governors Forum, we have taken a decision sometime last year. You will recall that at one time we met the President and we told him what we were doing. We set up committees and the committees have worked very hard. You will recall that we started our meeting from the Northwest in Katsina, we are going back to have another meeting in North Central.

“The situation in the south might not be the same with the north but in the north we are also looking at some ways that will also address these issues. So, we have gone ahead to set up committees, those committees have done their work and we are going to meet to address these issues once and for all.

“Two, we have also agreed to key into the community policing and at the level of the committee we have already gone far. Each state is already neck deep in community policing.

“But I have not read the document; I cannot claim to have read the details of that (Amotekun) document, to understand what they mean by Amotekun. I saw various vehicles that were bought but you know if it’s about vehicles, many vehicles have been bought in the north. I bought almost 100 vehicles and gave to the police but that is not what will address the insecurity in my state.

“So, it may vary from south to the north but in the north we are trying to look for comprehensive ways that will help augment what the Federal Government is doing in respect to insecurity.

“In Plateau state particularly, all of these things had stopped. We were not witnessing cattle rustling again, I knew what I did. We were not witnessing kidnapping again even without a law in my state. But this attempt just happened and it has reawakened me to something else. That is why I am going back to look at another window in respect to cattle rustling.”

On the attack, the governor said a total of 19 lives were lost, describing the incident as a surprise and something that caught the state unaware.

He said: “So, as a matter of fact we woke up yesterday (Thursday) early in the morning to get information that people were killing themselves in a village. So I didn’t waste time, I took off to that village. My timely intervention and presence helped a lot. Because, after the first set of killings, the second set was reprisal killings. So when I got there everything had tto stop.

“I spoke to the people, we buried the people and they understood with me and the place has remained calm, peace has been restored to that place.”

On efforts to find lasting solution to killings in the state, he said in estimation was ongoing and that the outcome would determine the next line of action.

“Well, if you know Plateau, we have settled this crisis in the state and we are enjoying our peace. But at times when you get to this level people forget that there was peace in the state. Christmas was well celebrated in the state, New Year was well celebrated in the state until this incident.

“Our little investigations confirm that it was a group of cattle rustlers in a huge number that rustled over 100 cows. They were moving with them. We have also made appeal through the youths that whenever there is this kind of challenge, they should move in and see to arrest some of the criminals.

“Unfortunately, the youths came out, they did their best. In fact I will call them patriotic. They went in and stopped the rustlers from moving with the cows and were able to rescue about 100 cows at the end of the day. So after the rescue they were only able to arrest about three or four those people and took them to the police station and returned to their various villages.

“That early morning, some of those rustlers who escaped came back and started attacking and killing people in the villages.  So it was quite unfortunate.

“I must say the security people got there and they did a good job. If they were not there the level or casualty would have been much. Those people were heavily armed but the youths had no arms but they did their best. Three of them sacrificed their lives and before I got there the people were also selling engaging in reprisal attacks. You know the moment it gets to reprisal attacks it means you are also attacking innocent people, about three people again were killed. So a total of 13 people were killed. We were able to address the people and the people understood and are very calm. Life has gone back to normal but investigations are still ongoing. We have put security around to follow and get the culprits,” he said.

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