Bola Tinubu, national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says the south-west security outfit tagged ‘Amotekun’ is leaning in the opposite way of what the Nigeria police force is seeking to achieve.
In a statement he signed, the former governor of Lagos state, however, said the outfit is commendable and was not launched to threaten the unity of Nigeria.
He also said Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation, acted hastily in condemning the outfit and erred in describing it as “defence” agency.
He said while the current administration has approved community and grassroots policing, “it is uncertain how well Amotekun can complement the police force as the force moves toward greater decentralisation when Amotekun is organisationally leaning in the opposite way”.
Tinubu said the outfit as it is needs to be improved “before it takes to the road only to quickly slip into a ditch”, and further advised against equipping it with “showy paraphernalia” which may cause its role to be misunderstood.
“The Attorney-General acted hastily in rendering a public statement that was more inaccurate than it should have been. Amotekun was never proposed as a “defence” agency; the Attorney-General erred in using this description,” he added.
“The use of uniforms and brightly coloured vehicles may not be the best ideas but they do not render Amotekun a defence agency or paramilitary group any more than a designated school van carrying uniformed students constitutes a paramilitary deployment.”
The APC leader said Malami should have reached out to the governors privately if he felt they erred by launching the outfit.
“This would have enabled him to give the governors any specific constitutional or other objectives he might have. In this way, the two sides would have engaged in private consultations to reach agreement on the way forward,” he said.
Tinubu said “Amotekun” and the reactions it has generated should be seen as a step in the evolution of our federalism, and chided those arguing the outfit poses a risk to the unity of Nigeria as well as those that viewed the reaction of the federal government as a move to suppress the south-west.
“Those claiming that this limited, inoffensive addition to security threatens the Republic have taken themselves upon a madcap excursion,” he said.
“Those claiming that the Federal Government seeks to terribly suppress the Southwest have also lost their compass. Those who occupy these two extremes have sunken into the dark recesses of fear and political paranoia that can undo a nation if such sentiments are allowed to gestate.”
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