The Chairman of the South-West Governors’ Forum and Ondo State Governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, on Wednesday declared that the South-West Security Network, Operation Amotekun, would not be subsumed under the Nigeria Police.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Garba Shehu, had earlier said the structure of the security agency would be defined by the Inspector-General of Police.
But South-West governors objected to the position on the grounds that the bill setting the security agency up was passed by the Houses of Assembly of the six states of the South-West and was duly signed into the law by the governors of the states.
Akeredolu, who spoke on Channels TV programme, Sunrise Daily, on Wednesday, said the agency could not operate under community policing.
According to him, there was a collaboration between the police and the Amotekun corps in order to secure lives and property of people of the region.
He said, “A law set up Amotekun and Amotekun operates under its own law and it’s not going to be subsumed under any setup. No, we will work together, it is a collaboration, but not that it will be subsumed; that is not the thinking and that is not going to be acceptable.”
The PUNCH