Group Stage Anti-Amotekun Protest In Lagos

A coalition of Yoruba groups, under the aegis of the Yoruba Appraisal Forum, has raised the alarm of hijack of the recently-launched South-West Security Outfit, code-named Amotekun, by some individuals bent on deploying it for sinister purposes.

The forum, therefore, urged South-West governors to stop the security outfit and go back to the drawing board.

YAF, at a peaceful rally in front of Lagos State Police Command yesterday, described Amotekun as a monster that would soon consumed its creator, Guardian reports.

Its spokesman, Oloketuyi Joshua Ojo, said: “Those who set up the outfit had good intention, but the idea will soon be hijacked by politicians and land grabbers. Amotekun was a noble one, as they set out to protect the people of the region against criminal elements causing wanton destruction of lives and property, the idea has been hijacked and now intended for purposes that could be injurious to the continued corporate existence of Nigeria.

We have uncovered plans to use Amotekun to destabilise the South-West and ultimately the entire country.“Amotekun has been hijacked by those who don’t mean well for Yorubaland and the country at large. They plan to hide under the guise of providing security to cause mayhem in the country.”

Ojo, who said that the dangers inherent in the establishment of the South-West security initiative could not be quantified, said: “We make bold to say that the reality is that Amotekun is an instrument to perpetrate crime and make political gains for a few individuals masquerading as having the love of the people of the region at heart.

“Our concern here is that if Amotekun is not stopped now, the nation may not even live to regret the creation of this leopard in whose belly it may end up. God forbid!

“The indications are clear enough to discern that Amotekun will eventually become a Frankenstein monster that the country won’t be able to control. Having another rebellion from the South-West would be one crisis too many for a country still struggling to combat the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East, banditry and cattle rustling in the North-West and North-Central areas as well as militancy in the South-South.

“The plan is that once Amotekun gains foothold in the region, the new promoters and their foreign sponsors will now show their real colours and their real intention by hounding other ethnic groups in the South-West in the name of providing security in the region, and in the process, embark on a sort of ethnic cleansing and ultimately expelling other Nigerians from Yorubaland through force and violence, the backlash of which will be retaliation in the other regions.”

Meanwhile, Ojo had while addressing journalists in Lagos yesterday before the scheduled protest at the police command, said while the Yoruba Appraisal Forum lauds the good intention of the governors that came together to form Amotekun for the interest of their people, it could not be ruled out that some sycophants have come together to divert the good intention of the initiators with a view to using the initiative for their own selfish interest or purpose.

He stressed that to subjugate the nefarious intention of the hijackers, there is need to come up with blue-prints of recruitment of members of the outfit, the inclusion of every local council, moving gradually, and carrying every citizen along.