Atiku supports Amotekun, faults central security architecture

• Initiative irreversible, FG’s opposition inconsequential, says Fani-Kayode
• Gani Adams berates Musa, tasks lawmakers to legislate on outfit

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has expressed support for the establishment of zonal, states and community security architecture to curb rising insecurity in the country. He cautioned that refusal to adopt novel means of securing lives and property across the country posed serious threat to Nigeria’s unity.

Atiku’s position emerged just as former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, declared yesterday in Abuja that Federal Government’s declaration of Operation Amotekun as an illegal outfit was an inconsequential opinion expressed through the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.He submitted that such opinion could not stop Amotekun because it had come to stay, as the only way people of the South West zone could protect themselves from being killed by criminals.

Fani-Kayode said the Federal Government had no right to declare Amotekun illegal because it failed to comply with a fundamental constitutional provision, which made security and welfare the only basis for the existence of government.“And anybody that believe that we can be in anyway intimidated by stepping down and saying we will not protect our people from those killings is making a big mistake. There is no going back on the security outfit and it is something we have firmly resolved,” he stated.

However, Atiku’s support for zonal security architecture, which was contained in a statement issued by his media adviser, Paul Ibe yesterday noted, “In the past decade particularly, the current policing administration in our country had been stretched to its limits and it is obvious that the reality of domestic security upheaval will require us to recalibrate our police systems.”He noted that in present day Nigeria, there was hardly any state of the federation that does not contend with one kind of security challenges or the other.

“Because our security challenges are diverse, it is important that centrally controlled police architecture cannot exclusively deal with those challenges.Consequently, there is need for the creation of additional policing structures in the country to address the rapidly growing challenges of insecurity and crime,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, Aare Onakankanfo of Yoruba Land, Gani Adams has accused former Governor of old Kaduna State, Balarabe Musa of supporting the North’s conquest agenda of the South following his position that the Federal Government and Nigerians should reject Amotekun.Adams, in a statement yesterday however, urged all states Houses of Assembly in the South West to pass the Amotekun bill into law within two weeks, just as he encouraged traditional rulers and all Yoruba at home and in the Diaspora to support the new security arrangement.