By Desire Emmanuel
The Osun State Governor, Nurudeen Adeleke, has urged the authorities of the Nigeria Police to immediately lift ban on Amotekun operations to combat the emerging threats of banditry and kidnapping that have reached Kwara State.
Adeleke said this on Friday, February 6, while warning against spillover of kidnapping and banditry from Kwara State to Osun State following a kidnapping incident that took place in Ora Igbomina recently.
Expressing worries over recent kidnapping at Ora Igbomina area, the governor said the state is handicapped in its security response as the Amotekun service has remained banned by the police with its top officers in detention without trial for several months.
The governor said his call for the lifting became necessary because the Amotekun service had developed the containment expertise especially in the rural border areas, submitting that the police’s shutting down of the service operations has created a big gap being exploited by bandits and criminals.
Governor Adeleke, who called on the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to charge those detained to court and order the lifting of the ban, stated that further delay may endanger the rural population and open the state to further criminal infiltration.
“I am taking this matter to the public domain in view of another kidnapping at Ora Igbomina. Closing down Amotekun operations exposes Osun people to serious risks. I call on the Inspector General of Police to unseal Amotekun and allow its operatives to secure my people across the grassroots.
“Those officers in detention should be charged to court after several months of incarceration. Any further delay in the unsealing of Amotekun will further jeopardise the safety and security of our people,” the governor was quoted as saying in a statement by his spokesman, Olawale Rasheed.
