Ondo group seeks Amotekun upgrade to state police

A socio-political group in Ondo State known as Ondo Citizens for Good Governance has called on the Federal Government and the National Assembly to allow upgrade of the South Western Security Network also known as Amotekun, to a full-fledge state police to enhance security of lives and properties of the people of the region.

Amotekun security outfit, founded in the South-West in January 2020, to address insecurity in the region.

The outfit was established to tackle increasing security challenges facing the region. But the OCGG said the security agency needed to be upgraded for more efficiency.

The group also expressed opposition to the proposed forest guards to man the forests across the country, saying it was needless since the states already had security outfits on ground.

The Coordinator of the group, Mr Olawumi Adegbola, in a statement issued in Akure on Friday, urged governments at all levels to elevate the Amotekun Corps into a fully-fledged state police structure, noting that such a step would significantly strengthen the fight against crimes and criminality across the region.

According to the statement, rather than establishing new forest guards, which may result in duplication of roles and strained security resources, it would be more effective to empower and professionalise Amotekun.

The statement read, “State police is the most practical and urgent solution to the growing menace of banditry and kidnappings in Nigeria.

The current security arrangement, which is largely centralised, has repeatedly proven incapable of providing timely and effective responses to these criminal activities, especially in the remote and forested areas where bandits have found safe havens.

“With properly structured and empowered state police formations like the Amotekun Corps, states would be better equipped to carry out aggressive, localised security operations aimed at flushing out criminal elements from their hideouts. Local policing units possess superior knowledge of the geography, culture, and movement patterns within their territories, which gives them a decisive edge in intelligence gathering and rapid deployment.”

Allaying the fear that the state police could be abused by political leaders, the group stated that such situation could be mitigated through proper legislative frameworks, oversight mechanisms, and community accountability.

“Since its inception, the Amotekun Corps has proven to be a crucial line of defence in the battle against banditry, kidnapping, and other violent crimes festering within our communities and forests. Their familiarity with the local environment, their cultural alignment with the people, and their deep understanding of the geographical and historical intricacies of the region have positioned them uniquely to combat crime in ways that external forces simply cannot replicate. It is therefore, imperative that Amotekun and other state security outfits be given full institutional backing for them to metamorphose into a formalized state police structure.

“The recent proposal to create forest guards, supposedly to protect our forests, raises critical questions. Why create a parallel security outfit comprised of individuals who neither understand the people nor the territory they are meant to safeguard? These Forest Guards, in many cases, would be strangers to the nuances of the local environment oblivious to the history, cultural heritage, and unique landmarks that are second nature to the indigenous Amotekun officers.

“If Amotekun has been effectively securing our forests, why introduce another layer of bureaucracy that may complicate rather than complement existing efforts? Worse still, these newly created forest guards may eventually be controlled by distant federal appointees who lack native intelligence and historical context people who would require extensive briefings before each intervention and whose interests may not align with the security needs of the local population,” the statement noted

The group in the statement alsourged the federal government to prioritise decentralised policing structures as a lasting solution to Nigeria’s security woes.