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By Samuel Adegoke
Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has disclosed how the Western Nigeria Security Network codenamed Amotekun will be sustained.
He also hinted how the outfit will prevent abuse by the personnel, adding that adequate training will help shape its effectiveness.
Speaking on the operationalisation of the outfit in an interview with journalists after the official launch in Ibadan on Thursday, Akeredolu said: “As you know, in every human endeavour, no one can be certain about the activities of those that will be involved in doing the work, but one thing is certain, we are going to ensure that the abuse is minimal.
“We will do this from the beginning, those we are employing, those we are drafting and that will work in the scheme are being trained and with the training and if anybody falls short and or go out of the way, then he is out, so we are going to ensure that those that will work are properly trained, they will know what their limits are.
“So, for us, it is a human endeavour that could have one lapse here and there but by and large we will ensure that nobody runs foul.”
On sustainability, he said: “It can never fizzle out. If all of us, six governors in this zone, come together to do something, are you saying we have decided to buy those vehicles to throw into the stream? We have bought vehicles, motorcycles and co. for this outfit and we are sure it will be here for long. Whatever happens, you will remember that we always start something here. We started road safety here, now road safety is federal. So, we have started something here again and we said, it is helping community policing and I am sure that it will soon catch up everywhere in the country.
“What we are doing is legal and all we know is that it is within our powers. Section 14 of the constitution is very clear and we have responsibility for our people in this zone for their security of lives and property. So it is in pursuit of that, that we are setting that up to make sure that at least, to give our people the confidence that the governors are worried with the state of insecurity in the region.
“We have said that the essence of Amotekun is collaboration. We are not here to out stage any of the existing security operatives, be it military, police, civil defence, all of them. We are all going to work together, I can assure you.
“What has happened in most of the state is that we have all sat down with the personnel that will work in the operation and we discussed with the brigade commanders, the commissioners of police and all others and we all agreed on it. Because when it comes to security, no one agency can do it alone, there must be synergy and all of us must come together to work.”