Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, South West Nigeria criticised the Federal Government’s double standards on the matter of state-owned security agencies.
He worried that the FG resisted needed rights for the South-West Security Network, codenamed Amotekun Corps to legitimately bear arms while their counterparts in Katsina were allowed to bear arms.
In a statement issued on Thursday and made available to the press by his Chief Press Secretary, Richard Olatunde, Akeredolu said, to allow the Katsina State security outfit bear arms yet deny the Amotekun of same rights means “we are pursuing one country, two systems.”
It further stated: “The video making the rounds showing the equivalent of the Western Nigeria Security Network (Amotekun Corps) in Katsina, obtaining the approval of the Federal Government to bear arms is fraught with great dangers. Denying Amotekun the urgently needed rights, to legitimately bear arms is a repudiation of the basis of true federalism which we have been clamoring for.
“That Katsina was able to arm its state security force, with the display of AK47 means we are pursuing one country, two systems ” solution to the national question. If the Katsina situation conferring advantages on some, in the face of commonly faced existential threats, it means that our unitary policing system, which has failed, is a deliberate method of subjugation which must be challenged.
“The Independence agreement was based on a democratic arrangement to have a federal state and devolved internal security mechanics. We must go back to that agreement.
Denying Amotekun the right to bear arms exposes the Southwest to life-threatening marauders and organized crime. It is also a deliberate destruction of our agricultural sector. It is an existential threat.”