Amotekun: Don’t emphasize paper qualification in recruitment, Agbekoya, hunters warn

THE Agbekoya Revolutionary Group and the Soludero Hunters Association, has urged South-West governors not to prioritise paper qualification in the ongoing recruitment process of Amotekun personnel.
The two groups also vowed to repatriate all Northern youths, who invaded the south, to their states as soon as Amotekun begins operation.
Speaking at a forum in Ibadan, the National Chairman of the association, Oba Ajijola Anabi said that when Amotekun begins operation, all hoodlums, violent Fulani herders, kidnappers, armed robbers, dangerous gangs like One Million Boys would be flushed out of Western Region.
Oba Ajijola Anabi said: “Amotekun will be stationed at borders and will fish out all Almajiris and send them back to their states. We know all the routes the violent herders, kidnappers ply. We are hunters; we are familiar with all forests in the zone. Forest is a normal terrain for us. We will catch them and hand them over to the police.”
Also speaking at a different forum in Ibadan, the National Coordinator of Agbekoya, Alhaji Ahmed Raji, advised governors in the South-West not to use any paper qualification for recruitment into the outfit.
Raji said: “Our forefathers didn’t depend on guns. We have our local arrangement that is much stronger than guns. We have what can kill more than guns. We don’t need sophisticated weapons before we operate.
“Recruitment into Amotekun security outfit should not be for only the educated. It shouldn’t be based on paper qualifications. If this is adhered to, there is an assurance that it would succeed.
“Almajiris are all over the South West zone especially Oyo State. They are in Ona Ara, Lagelu, Oluyole. Some of them have come with arms. We need to be vigilant in the South.
“We call the attention of South-West governors to the fact that some people with arms from a zone in this country are spreading all over the Southern parts.
 
Outfit may fail if... —Akala 
Meanwhile, a former governor of Oyo State, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala, has taken exception to the appointment of Director-Generals of Amotekun Corps in the South West.
He said the action could undermine the success of the security outfit.
Akala, who said this as part of activities fixed for his 70th birthday in June, said: “The  Amotekun  Corps will fail in the South-West states except for Lagos. The outfit is supposed to take care of the security of the people and their property across the zone but it will fail in every state except Lagos because the right people were not appointed to head it.” 
He said: “You cannot expect a soldier to head  Amotekun successfully. A police officer is trained especially on internal security management. If fundamentally the foundation is weak whatever you want to put on it would be weak. When you have a soldier there, he is taught how to kill. The governors don’t get it right by appointing ex-military men to head the outfits in the other states." 
“If a retired senior police officer was appointed as the head of the  Amotekun outfit in a state, the Commissioner of Police in the state would respect him as his former superior. A retired Army officer would want to be forceful in his approach.
Culled from Vanguard