Amotekun: In Line with Community Policing- Fayemi

For the second time in a week, Kayode Fayemi, Governor of Ekiti State has defended the establishment of South West Security Network code-named, Amotekun.

Speaking in Abuja on Thursday, Fayemi said the Southwest security outfit, code –named Amotekun, is in line with community policing, or multi-layered policing, which is very effective in safety and crime prevention.

Fayemi who insisted that the police authorities were involved in the setting up the Amotekun security outfit, said the promoters of the project- south west governors- had made it clear that it was in response to the security challenge in the zone and was designed to complement efforts of the established security agencies.

He however said that current debate about the legality/ desirability or otherwise of the security outfit is a healthy national conversation about how to make Nigeria safer and our people more secured.

Related: Amotekun Not Regional Police – Fayemi

According to Fayemi, “The Amotekun vision is a logical end product of President Buhari’s compelling vision on community policing and bottom-up approach to security sector governance across the length and breadth of the country.

“Far from being a competitor with the existing national security platforms, it aims to complement them in the areas of neighbourhood watch, information and intelligence gathering, detection of early warning signs and engaging in early response in a pro-active manner, apart from acting as liaison between the conventional security outfits and the local population.

“For those who are familiar with the mechanism of security sector reforms and transformation in democratising politics, they will readily appreciate the need for a multi-faceted, multi-layered and multi-dimensional approaches to national policing and maintenance of law and order.

 Indeed, apart from strengthening the operational and administrative capacity of security institutions and the training and retraining of security agents, the other vital component of this paradigm shift in national security calculus is the direct, logical, coherent and sequential involvement of local population and grassroots governance in national security and crime prevention.

“It is in recognition of the above that the Amotekun model emerged”, Fayemi said.