Amotekun: Akeredolu adamant on firearms, Afenifere slams FG

The Chairman of the South-West Governors Forum, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, on Monday, expressed his commitment to arming the South West Security Network Agency, also known as Amotekun, with sophisticated weapons for effective operation.
This is just as the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere; the Yoruba Council of Elders and the Ohanaeze Ndigbo flayed the Federal Government for denying the Amotekun corps the right to bear sophisticated weapons.
The leader of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, at a press conference in Lagos on Wednesday, insisted that Amotekun should be armed.
He said, “We have been calling for state police long before now, but because the Federal Government uses the police against us, that is why the president doesn’t want to arm Amotekun but approved that the Katsina Security Unit be armed.
“This shows you the kind of government that we have. He cannot give arms to Amotekun in the South but gives them to the North and we are saying Nigeria is one.”
The YCE Secretary General, Dr Kunle Olajide, in an interview with The PUNCH on Monday, said if the Federal Government allowed the vigilante group in Katsina State to bear arms, denying Amotekun the same right was condemnable.
He said, “If the law applies equally to others throughout Nigeria, there will be no problem about that and one will not raise any issue.
“But what we hear is that the vigilante groups in the North are allowed to bear sophisticated arms. If that is correct, there should be no separate rules for the outfits in the North and the South.”
The Coalition of Yoruba Self Determination Groups has also described the FG’s posture as a double standard.
The group said this in a statement on Monday by its leader, Steve Abioye.
Abioye said, “We received the highly disgusting news of the licence given to Katsina Security Network to bear AK-47 while our Amotekun is being denied same. This is a double standard on the part of the Federal Government.

GOGAN Media.