Governors of the six Southwest states will meet with police chiefs on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s inauguration of Amotekun, the region’s security outfit.

Operation Amotekun is primed to curb armed banditry, kidnapping for ransom and other forms of criminality.

The meeting is scheduled for Ibadan where the security outfit will be unveiled.

It was also gathered, that all the equipment, including operational vehicles, motorcycles and communication gadgets would have been moved from the states to Ibadan before the meeting that will be presided over by Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akedolu, who is chairman of Southwest Governors’ Forum.

The Ondo state governor is expected back from a trip abroad before the meeting.

Expected at the meeting are Governors Seyi Makinde (Oyo); Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti); Adegboyega Oyetola (Osun); Dapo Abiodun (Ogun) and Babjide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos).

The meeting is to allow the governors and the police chiefs to finalise how the outfit will operate for proper understanding before the launch.

The governors were in constant communication in the last 10 days to firm up the role which conventional and unconventional security personnel will play in Amotekun.

Commissioners of police in the region will meet under the coordination of the Assistant-Inspectors General (AIGs) in the region before the meeting with the governors.

The senior police offices are to finalise talks on the role that the police will play.

Amotekun is the outcome of a security summit organised by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission in Ibadan the Oyo State capital in July last year.

It will have local hunters, vigilance groups and Oodua People’s Congress as members, who are to work with traditional rulers and conventional security agencies such as the police, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Army.

Each state has contributed 20 vans, fitted with communication equipment to the regional operation.

The regional team will work with those local (state) branches to ensure that criminals no longer find a safe haven in another state when they escape from one.

It was learnt that the states have recruited many of the unconventional security personnel.

Southwest Stakeholders Security Group (SSSG) has lauded plans by governors in the Southwest to roll out Operation Amotekun on Thursday.

The group described the move as ‘laudable’, saying it would create the needed synergy among the states to ensure the safety and security of the region.

The SSSG, however, said it is still in the dark regarding the modus operandi to be adopted when the outfit fully takes off

Rising from a meeting at the Lagos residence of the Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Chief Gani Adams, the group said it is ready to complement efforts of the governors and the Inspector General (IG) towards ensuring security for the Southwest.

The group comprises Oodua People’s Congress (OPC); Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN); the Southwest Hunters Association, (SWHAN); the Agbekoyas; Southwest Agbekoya Group (SAG), Agbekoya Farmers Society Group; Yoruba Youth Council (YYC) and Community Security Awareness Initiative Corps (COMSAIC) among others.

Adams, who is the convener of the group, said the governors were yet to contact them on the modus operandi, especially recruitment of members, with just a few days to its start.

He hoped that members of the outfit are people with integrity, saying anything short of that would amount to an ‘exercise in futility’.

He said: “All over the world, security of lives and property remains the priority of every government. It is when the country is safe and secured that we can think of other necessities.

“That is why as a group, we have made concerted effort to form this alliance to make the region safe for us.” (The Nation)

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