By Maria Ifafesobi
Akure
Ondo State Governor and the chairman of Southwest Governors forum, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has countered the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of Research and Planning, Mr. Adeleye Oyebade, who had earlier said that the State Security Network also known as Operation Amotekun would fall under the community policing which was recently set up by the federal government and that the governors of the states would be responsible for the payment of their salaries.
Governor Akeredolu who responded during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, on Wednesday, Akeredolu said, the idea would not be acceptable.
He said, “It will never be accepted, it is not our thinking. We have a law that sets this up. If the DIG feels otherwise, there is always a place for us to ventilate it. We are not afraid of this. The law said Amotekun will operate under its own law; it is not going to be subsumed under any setup. No.
“We will not collapse Amotekun for community policing. It will stand on its own. There is no intimidation. We are not people that can be intimidated that the IG will give orders to. We will not. Amotekun is different. Community policing is different. If the IG does not understand, he will leave one day and other people will understand.
“We will work together, it is collaboration, not that it will be subsumed. The law is there and if anybody finds a fault in that law, we can go to court and ventilate whatever position in it. The DIG is totally wrong, Amotekun will not be subsumed under the community policing.”
Mr. Akeredolu reiterated that governors would not pay community policemen. He said, “I am sure that they are taking this thing too far. Governors will have to pay? We have discussed this thing before and we told them it is not going to possible. Are you increasing their allocations? Which state governors will accept that? Other states might say yes; we will pay but we will not pay.
“Let’s be fair to ourselves, we are running a federal system. Where is that money going to come from when we are struggling to pay salaries? Nobody has ever come to us to say we will pay salaries anyway and if they come, we will write to say, no, we don’t have extra money to do that.”
He also explained that the need for multi-level policing which all the states have been clamoring for is to ensure the safety of lives and properties in the country.
He said, “No state takes pride in insecurity and the governors will be committed to that because most governors are elected to secure the lives and property of within their domain. So, which state will now have the police of its own and not deploy it to good use.
“Multi-level policing is the best for this country. I am one of those who believe we cannot have a central police and the security will continue to suffer until we devolve multi-level policing.
“Maybe people will be afraid that the governors will take charge of it, no, the governor will not be the ones that will be solely responsible for state police. It will be a police council at the state level and the composition will be spelled-out and people will be there by the virtue of their offices. So, it is not going to be a command that will be headed by the governor but by the functionary of the state police council. State police cannot be answerable to the governor.”
It would be recalled that earlier this year, all the states had clamored for independent police systems to combat security challenges in their localities which led to the formation of Operation Amotekun in the Southwest region. All the six states in the South-West region came together to form Operation Amotekun.
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