Some members of the National Assembly have charged State Houses of Assembly in the South West region to immediately come up with laws that will provide legal backing for Operation Amotekun, an outfit to curb rising insecurity in the region.
There are also those who view the security outfit as an ethnic militia that should not be allowed to stand.
National Assembly Correspondent, Joke Adisa, reports that the governments of Lagos, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti and Oyo states had on on 19 January converged on Ibadan and launched a security outfit code named Operation Amotekun.
The Governors said the initiative was to complement the Police and other paramilitary organisations to fight crime in the region.
The Federal government’s reaction came promptly through the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who pronounced the
initiative illegal. Then followed a flurry of reactions and protests from across the country.
The latest to add their voices to the raging controversy, are the members of the National Assembly. The legislators said the establishment of the security outfit is long overdue in view of the insecurity that has pervaded the region in the past three years. They want State Houses of Assembly to legalise the initiative.
But Abubakar Fulata from Jigawa state views the security outfit as an ethnic militia that could create more harm than good. He does not see any affiliation with existing Hisbah group in Kano and the Civilian JTF in the North East region.
