Lagos Assembly committed to passage of Amotekun bill ― Abiru

The Chief Whip of Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon Rotimi Abiru, has reiterated the commitment of the state legislature to ensure that the bill on ”Amotekun” is passed into law and the outfit put into place to complement the efforts of the police in securing the people of the South-Western states.

Abiru representing Shomolu Constituency 2, gave this assurance while speaking with newsmen, noting that the police in its current form lacked the capacity to protect the entire Nigerians.

The lawmaker said the state governors in the region rallied together to form Amotekun which he said had come to address security challenges such as kidnapping, assassination and armed robbery which could no longer be tolerated.

“The Lagos State Government foresaw the current security challenges and that was why the Lagos State Neighborhood Safety Corps Law was enacted in 2016 and the corps members came into being in 2017,” he recalled, adding: “What the Lagos State House Assembly is doing now is to amend the existing law to accommodate ‘Amotekun’ in the existing arrangement.”

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Abiru maintained that Amotekun is not state police, neither is it community policing, describing  the politicisation of the initiative by some groups as “uncalled for”.

”The politicisation is baseless and uncalled for. Amotekun is a special squad to help the Nigeria police in discharging its duties and responsibilities,” the lawmaker said, just as he expressed the hope that the federal government through the Inspector General of Police would grant licensed arms for operatives of security outfit.

On the Amotekun symbol, Hon Abiru explained that the image represents a ‘Cheetah’ which is the fastest animal in the world, saying that describes the potency of the Amotekun initiative.

Speaking on the just concluded public hearing by the Lagos Assembly, Abiru said the parliament took note of requirements needed of anyone who wanted to be recruited into Amotekun, such as swearing to an oath in the traditional way and not with the Qur’an or the Bible which the proponents believed would make the operatives more committed and a minimum of secondary school leaving certificate for any operative, while the hunter in the locality should also be given a chance.

”We are going local on the Issue of Amotekun so that people can monitor them and that much is expected from the Amotekun team in the area of performance,” Abiru said.