The Attorneys-General (AGs) of Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo states have concluded all the legal framework for the official take off of the Western Nigeria Security Network codenamed Operation Amotekun. The AGs met in Ibadan Friday night
In attendance were Prof Oyewole Oyewo (Oyo), Mr. Oluwafemi Akande (Osun), Mr. Olawale Fapohunda (Ekiti), Mr. Adekola Olawole (Ondo), Mr. Akingbolahan Adeniran (Ogun) and Mr. Moyosore Onigbanjo (Lagos) who was represented by the Director of Civil Litigation, Mr. S. A. Quadri.
Also there were officials of the Southwest regional think tank, Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission, led by the Director General, Mr. Seye Oyeleye.
The governors of the six states are expected to meet in Ibadan on Thursday to ratify the decisions of their chief legal officers preparatory to action by each state executive council and then the state assemblies.
According to the details of the agreed framework, each of the Southwest states will have its own legislation and its own security network operatives to be known as Amotekun Corps.
The meeting which started around 7pm lasted about three hours behind closed doors at Davies Hotel, Bodija, Ibadan.
Addressing journalists at the end of the meeting, Oyewo dismissed suggestions that the meeting was shifted from last Thursday to Friday for political reasons.
“Logistics and the challenges of the office of Attorneys-General in the various Southwest states necessitated the change in the meeting day,” he said.
He said that the bill would be sent to the various state assemblies after verification by each state Executive Council.
He said the operational details and structural procedures will be the same across the six states to allow for easy collaboration.
He said: “The meeting of the Attorneys-General of the six Southwest states just concluded and we deliberated on the plan to evolve a collaborative security network/agency in the Southwest.
“We have been able to come up with a legal framework to back up such establishment of security network in each of the states.
“So each of the states will have its own legislation and its own security network corps that will bear the name Amotekun Corps.
“There will be a standard operational procedure that will also be in common and there will be an avenue for collaboration between the states to work together.
“It must be stated that the security network will be working in collaboration, and as a complementary network, with the police and the security agencies and armed forces.
“We will be depending on our local people because of local intelligence. You can say it is community policing, vigilance but this security system under the name of Amotekun Corps has come to stay.
“The draft bills will proceed to the state houses of assembly of each of the states and will be signed into law by the governors of each state. That is where we are now.
“Today is Friday (meeting day). By next week, it will go to the state houses of assembly after it has passed through the Excos of each of the states.”
