Amotekun should transform to state police – Afenifere

The pan Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, has urged state governors to meet President Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of the National Assembly on the need to establish state police ‘as a matter of urgent necessity.

Afenifere said this in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi.

The group also called on the federal and state governments as well as security agencies to do everything possible to stop the spate of insecurity in the country in other to prevent more Nigerians from becoming residents at Internally Displaced Person camps.

Afenifere observed that the spate of attacks on communities and on individuals in the South has escalated, thus causing fear among the people.

Afenifere hailed the Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, for ordering that Close Circuit Television be installed and used in places of worship, schools, parks and other public and private places in the state

It said, “Given the limitations of state governments in the control of security apparati in their respective states, it is incumbent that they are allowed to transform their present security organisations such as Amotekun into a full-fledged police so that they would be in a better position to effectively utilise the information gathered from the CCTV monitoring.”

The group lamented the rate of killing, maiming and kidnapping for ransom in the South, saying these must be stopped by all means.

Afenifere said, “From all indications, state governors have a lot of clout because the constitution invests them with a lot of powers. They should, as chief security officers of their respective states, impress it on the powers that be in Abuja that the country is now in such a serious crossroads security wise that they must be allowed to take the bull by the horn. They can do this by having state police.”