A statement Akeredolu personally signed on Thursday, said to allow the Katsina State security outfit to carry AK47 and deny the Amotekun of same rights means “we are pursuing one country, two systems .“
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State is angry that the federal government has approved AK47 for the vigilantes in Katsina State but denies those in the South West the same firepower.
Akeredolu, a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), issued a strongly-worded statement to condemn the FG’s double standard.
By Nigerian law, only the president can approve the use of AK47 by private individuals.
Amotekun is the South-West Security Network established by governors of the region to confront the insecurity in their domain.
READ ALSO
RCCG pastor jailed for issuing $1.6m dud cheque in Lagos
A statement Akeredolu personally signed on Thursday, said to allow the Katsina State security outfit to bear arms and deny the Amotekun of same rights means “we are pursuing one country, two systems .“
The statement reads in part: “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.”
