Bandits, criminals exploiting police ban on Amotekun to infiltrate Osun – Adeleke

By Ayorinde Oluokun

Osun governor, Ademola Adeleke, has warned that the ban on operations of Osun Security Network Agency (Amotekun Corps) in the state by the police has created a big gap being exploited by bandits and criminals.

Adeleke stated this in a statement issued by his spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed, on Friday while warning of against spillover of banditry and kidnapping from Kwara state into Osun if the police refused to immediately lift ban on Amotekun operations to combat the emerging threats.

The governor cited the recent case of kidnapping at Ora Igbomina area to justify his claim that the state is handicapped in its security response if Amotekun operations remained banned in the state.

The Governor noted the Amotekun service has remained sealed by the police with her top officers in detention in Abuja without trial for several months.

Adeleke who noted that Amotekun service had developed the containment expertise especially in the rural border areas of Osun therefore called on the Inspector General of Police to charge those detained to court and unseal the service.

He stated that further delay may endanger Osun 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 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 after a closed door security meeting.

Recall that operation of Amotekun was suspended after arrest of 25 Osun of the outfit’s operatives over alleged killings of five people in Akinlalu village.

The arrested Amotekun operatives were taken to Abuja and has been in detention since then

Residents of Akinlalu had accused operatives of the Western Nigeria Security Network, Amotekun Corps in Osun, of killing three residents on Sept. 30.

The residents also claimed that the Amotekun operatives acted without provocation and took away the corpses of those they killed after the attack.

They also alleged that about 10 people sustained gunshot injuries in the attack and were admitted for treatment in hospitals in Ipetumodu, Gbongan, and Yakooyo.