The declaration of Amotekun as illegal by the Federal government through the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, has been generating reactions from all the six geopolitical zones with some expressing support for Amotekun while others are opposed to it.
Latest to declare support for Amotekun and lambasted the federal government and Malami is the Southern Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) who has called on the South-West Governors to ignore the federal government’s declaration.
In a statement jointly issued and signed by Yinka Odumakin (South West), General CRU Iherike (South East), Senator Bassey Henshaw (South-South) and Dr Isuwa Dogo (Middle Belt), the group attributed the decision of Malami to an earlier “held suspicion that sections of the country are deliberately being rendered vulnerable for herdsmen and other criminals by the federal government.
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“We ask the governors of the South West to ignore Malami and allow him to go to court to challenge their decision as he cannot constitute himself a court over elected governors. We are not under military rule.
“We insist that what the governors have done is what individuals and neighbourhoods can legally do to secure their lives and property. The right to preserve your life cannot be under any exclusive list other than the list of those who have no value for human lives.”
The group declared that the ultra fire action of the AGF had further exposed Nigeria as a country under command, control and governed by a conquest mentality. We ask Malami to tell us what makes Amotekun illegal and Hisbah legal.
According to SMBLF, Malami should explain to Nigerians what makes Civilian JTF legal in the North East where there is war and in Kaduna and Kano where there is no war, while Amotekun is Malami’s only illegal take.
The group called the latest situation as a defining moment to decide if ‘we are under segregation and different laws in the country”.