APC northern governors reject Amotekun, back community policing

Governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from the North have rejected Amotekun, a regional security outfit recently launched by Governors of the Southwest geopolitical zone who are mostly members of the APC.

The APC Governors have instead thrown their weight behind community policing as the most effective security strategy to tackle the current insecurity being experienced in all parts of the country.

Simon Lalong,  Governor of Plateau State and Co-Chairman of Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) Governance Programme Steering Committee made this known Friday while addressing journalists at the end of the 2020 1st Quarterly meeting of the Committee in Abuja.

Lalong said the Progressives Governors were not talking about Amotekun but the general insecurity in the country and once they laid the foundation for the APC states and it is approved, they will begin to talk about implementation and at the level, their colleagues would bring up Amotekun.

“What we are laying down now in the framework is general insecurity because we are not unmindful of the situation in the country. For every year we make a framework and tell them these are things that APC governors should adopt in terms of preparing their budget and also in governance in their States”, he stated.

Lalong insisted that the APC Governors had agreed on community policing after presentation from security agencies which is within the law unlike Amotekun, and urged his South West colleagues to dialogue with the federal government to ensure their security apparatuses are within the law.

“In general terms, what we did after presentation from security agencies is, all of us appear to be talking about community policing. That one we have all agreed on so we don’t want a situation where you start doing something and the federal government will say you are doing outside the law just like what they said about Amotekun.

“It is now that they are going to dialogue. Even if they are doing that it has to be within the law. So, what is within the law as far as Governors are concerned is the issue of community policing. We have all agreed on that,” he emphasized.

Read also:Update: Amotekun: Osinbajo brokers FG-South West Governors truce

On the renewed attacks by the Boko Haram, the Plateau Governor said, “I take it as part of what propaganda because when they are getting to that level, they can use any means to propagate and incite people to go into killings. We heard what happened in Adamawa where they killed a pastor and then they went to Plateau state and killed a student.

“I have been telling the people, trying to caution them because the intention is done for people to start fighting on religious grounds. By the time you fall into it, they will come back again. When you are fighting, they will come back and start mingling with the people.

“So, it is very unfortunate when they start killing students and religious leaders. We have to keep appealing to the people. We have made strong appeal to the security agencies to go back to those places because we do not expect Boko Haram to be superior to our security agencies,” he said.

Also speaking, another Co-Chairman of the Committee and Governor of Jigawa State, Mohammed Badaru said each state has its own peculiar security challenges and different approaches in tackling them, but enjoined South West Governors to dialogue with the federal government over Amotekun.

“I believe the Federal government and the regions are finding some solutions and think they will resolve the issues on how they will do it and also I think security is peculiar to each state. It depends for each state, what they believe will work for them, some will want Amotekun, some will want dialogue, Jigawa we don’t need any. We can not say it’s a policy that all APC states will take”, Badaru maintained.

Highlighting the security efforts of the APC government, he said, “I believe there is a standing Committee that is looking at security that involves not only APC governors but all governors in the federation.

“The President is so worried about the security and is working tirelessly to see how this menace will really come down but I am sure you will believe with me that around Zamfara, Katsina and Sokoto it has dropped. Kaduna is not so much as it used to be and when you go to the North East we are able to reduce it significantly.

“If you remember clearly, coming from Kano to Abuja you  are not sure if you will arrive without somebody bombing your car or you  are afraid of being kidnapped. The government is looking at social intervention to see how we can create jobs, create wealth and we believe that will help in strengthening the economy and that will help in reducing the security challenges”.

James Kwen, Abuja