The Ekiti, Lagos and Osun state governments on Friday announced their readiness to recruit about 1,320 personnel for Operation Amotekun to curb kidnapping and criminal activities in the South West region.
This announcement came barely 48 hours after South West governors led by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State inaugurated the outfit.
Meanwhile, the Police has said it have identified about 52 deadly black spots they would focus to work in collaboration with the security outfit in the region.
Announcing their plans to recruit personnel from the Oodua Peoples Congress, Agbekoya, Vigilantes and hunters, Ekiti, Lagos and Osun said the recruitment would be handled by each state in collaboration with the security agencies.
The Special Adviser on Security to Ekiti State governor, Brig. Gen. Ebenezer Ogundana (retd), said Operation Amotekun would fully take off as soon.
Ogundana said the states were awaiting the operational procedure which would define the mandate of the operators.
“It will take off as soon as possible. The only thing we are waiting for is the standing operational procedure that is going to define our mandate so that we don’t send people out and something happened that we will not be able to explain. When we get the document, we will read it to them and we begin operation,” he said.
The Special Adviser said they would not do any recruitment in Ekiti because “we have people we are going to use.”
He added: “We are using members of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria, it is an institution that is already on ground. The Oodua Peoples Congress is a regional organisation that is fully on ground, that is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission. The hunters have a national association registered with the CAC too.
“These are the people we will use and we have them in Ekiti, we have them in every local government. We have contacted the local government and they will forward their lists to us. The Kabiyesis are the ones coordinating the hunters and the head of the vigilante group has the list. That is what we are compiling.
“In Ekiti, we are looking at between 400 and 500 people for a start.”
Ogundana said the vigilantes, hunters and OPC members to be recruited would be trained to enhance results for the outfit.
“The roles they are going to play is in terms of gathering information which will be localised and they will be located in their own areas,” he said.
Also, the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Gbenga Omotoso, on Friday said the state had donated 20 vehicles and would recruit 120 people to support Operation Amotekun.
Omotoso, who spoke with one of journalists in Lagos, said although the state already had its local Neighbourhood Watch similar to Amotekun, it would continue to support any thing that would promote peace in the region.
He said: “Lagos has donated 20 vehicles and in terms of personnel, we are going to contribute no fewer than 120. We also have a template on the same security. We have been running Neighbourhood Watch and it is working for us. But it does not mean that if there is any regional idea we would not support.That is why we have contributed vehicles in terms of equipment and 120 personnel in addition to other things that we are doing.”
The commissioner said Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu was not able to attend the inauguration of the outfit on Thursday because he already had a scheduled programme for that day.
Also speaking, the Chief Press Secretary(CPS) to Osun State governor, Ismail Omipidan, said the state plans to recruit 700 locals that would work with the conventional security outfits in the state.
Omipidan also said all security agencies were involved in the recruitment, which according to him, was going on smoothly, adding that the role of the personnel would be restricted to intelligence gathering.
“The success of the Civilian JTF initiative in the fight against insurgency has encouraged us to engage the locals primarily in the area of intelligence gathering.
“We are recruiting 700 locals and all security agencies are involved in the recruitment process. It is ongoing and I believe it will be completed soon,” he said.
A top government official in the state also said the state would inaugurate its own chapter of the outfit before the end of the month.
He said: “ Osun will use the Olajokun Park in Gbongan as their operational base. We are still perfecting the operational procedures and we should complete that next week.
“What we want to do now is to have men on patrol to know the areas very well. The people we will recruit will gather intelligence and send it to the operational base in Gbongan.
“They will not arrest anyone, they will only gather information. We will recruit about 10 people each through the local government areas and the local council development areas.
“These people understand the terrain, they understand the culture, beliefs and other things that can make them function better. It will be successful.”
