A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Jide Awe, has advised the Federal Government not to push the people of the South-West geo-political zone to the wall over the issue of ‘Amotekun’.
Awe, the immediate past chairman of APC in Ekiti State, while issuing a warning to the Federal Government, stated that rather than condemning the people of South-West for the Amotokun initiative, the government should have commended it.
Awe, who spoke during a radio proramme monitored on Saturday, condemned the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami’s disposition to the issue.
The APC chieftain, who was reacting to a statement credited to the Miyetti Allah Herders Association on the 2023 presidency, argued that South-West had paid its dues and had been destined to produce the next president, going by the principle of rotation.
He said: “The Federal Government should even appreciate the fact that the South-West governors openly formed the security body. What of if it was a secret body? That would be more dangerous and the Federal Government should not push the zone to that level.
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“For Abubakar Malami to have a complete work, let him tell Nigerians that hiring of private guard is illegal. Let him tell us that fencing a building or purchase of generating sets are also illegal as well.
“Let him know that as big men exist and protected by army, police and others, we at the lowest rung of the ladder must be allowed to live our lives, we too must be protected and Amotekun is for this purpose, because FG has failed us.”
Awe posited that the inability to secure the lives of the people by conventional security outfits signposted that Nigeria is now a completely failed state.
“Anything that has to do with security does not carry the toga of politics, so it will be a great disservice to our people to politicise the issues surrounding the formation and proscription of Amotekun.
“I salute our governors for breaking the barrier of hardlining politics to form this joint security. I am still at loss with the claim by the federal government that Amotekun was illegal.
“People were being kidnapped, robbed, killed and traumatised on daily basis and the FG did nothing. Do they want our governors to watch as their people were being killed?”
