Following the successful launch of the Western Nigeria Security Network codenamed operation ‘Amotekun’, the Ekiti State Government has disclosed that no fewer than 500 personnel would be assembled for the outfit in the state.
The Special Adviser on Security Matters to Ekiti State Governor, Brig-Gen Ebenezer Ogundana (retd), while speaking with newsmen during the weekend, noted that the state would not do any special personnel recruitment for the outfit, adding “we have people we are going to use”.
According to him: “We are using members of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria, it is an institution that is already on ground. The Oodua Peoples Congress is a regional organisation that is fully on ground that is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission. The hunters have a national association registered with the CAC too.
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“These are the people we will use and we have them in Ekiti, we have them in every local government. We have contacted the local government and they will forward their lists to us. The kabiyesis are the ones coordinating the hunters and the head of the vigilante group has the list. That is what we are compiling. In Ekiti, we are looking at between 400 and 500 people for a start.”
Ogundana said the state was awaiting the operational procedure which would define the mandate of the operators, saying the operation would soon take off.
“It will take off as soon as possible. The only thing we are waiting for is the standing operational procedure that is going to define our mandate so that we don’t send people out and something happened that we will not be able to explain. When we get the document, we will read it to them and we begin operation,” he said.
The security adviser said the vigilantes, hunters and OPC members to be engaged would be trained in a bid to achieve the desired results for the security network.
He said: “The roles they are going to play is in terms of gathering information which will be localised and they will be located in their own areas.”