Amotekun already in operation in Oyo except … ― Attorney General

Amid calls for Amotekun to fully kick off operations in Oyo State,  the state Attorney General, Professor Oyelowo Oyewo, has said key stakeholders were in the process of formulating operational guidelines with which board and Amotekun corps will operate.

Worried at intermittent incidences of herdsmen invading farmlands and clashing with farmers and residents across the state, it will be recalled that the state House of Assembly had, on Tuesday, asked state governor, Mr Seyi Makinde, to urgently see to the takeoff of the state security agency network, known as Amotekun corps.

According to Oyewo, Amotekun had already been set in operation in the state going by the appointment of General Kunle Togun as Chairman and as retired Cololonel Olayanju Olayinka as Commandant.

Speaking with Tribune Online, he explained that the formation of the Amotekun board, as being canvassed for, would be done as soon as operational manual, protocol, organisational structure, infrastructure were established.

“The Chairman, General Togun, has come on board; Lt Colonel Olayinka and there is a representative from the Ministry of Justice and other key stakeholders are working.

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“Before you start bringing the board, you need to establish the operational manual and all that. So after that, the board will be established and everything will work together.

“Yes, there is a law but we need to have their modus operandi and how they will operate. You need operational guidelines.

“For example, the police has the police act and police operational guidelines. So, there is the Amotekun law and there will be the Amotekun operational guidelines that will establish the protocol for each regional and sub-regional area commander, how they will be structured and everything.

“Already Amotekun is in operation because you have key Amotekun personnel that are already working to see that everything concerning this particular body is put in place and they are operating according to the Amotekun law that was passed by the state House of Assembly.

“So, the fact that one component of it is yet to be in place does not mean that it is not working,” Oyewo said.

Echoing the “what is worth doing at all is worth doing well” saying, Oyewo urged residents of the state to be patient for the operational guidelines to be designed in line with the Amotekun law passed by the state house of Assembly.

“The issue is not how soon but to do it and to do it well. It will be done and it will be done well. We won’t act under pressure. These things are going on and the public should exercise patience.

“At the appropriate time when all the infrastructure has been put in place, it will be made manifest,” Oyewo added.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE