Amotekun: IGP Backs S/West Security Outfit

The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has given the southwest governors the nod to the launch the region’s security outfit, Operation Amotekun, sources told Daily Trust yesterday. The security network is billed to be launched today at the Oyo State Government House in Ibadan. The sources hinted that the IGP gave the nod at the Force Headquarters in Abuja yesterday when he met with Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi. The IGP had earlier summoned all the six governors of the zone to an emergency meeting for clarifications on grey areas of the operations of the security network. One of the sources said the IGP granted that Amotekun be launched as it was a fallout of the southwest security summit organised by the police last year. Asked to confirm whether the IGP approved that Operation Amotekun    be launched, the spokesman of the Nigeria Police Force, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Frank Mba, told our reporter that the police boss was not opposed to the its creation. Mba said the IGP, however, insisted that the operations of Amotekun must be in line with the national security policy. He stated: “The Nigeria Police Force, under the leadership of the IGP Mohammed Adamu, is not opposed to any legitimate and community-based efforts aimed at tackling crime and criminality in any part of Nigeria. “The IGP would insist that those efforts must be legitimate and be in line with our national security policy and compatible to the national security architecture.” Mba said the IGP was working with the southwest governors to streamline the operations of Amotekun in line with the community policing programme endorsed by President Mohammadu Buhari.