There Are Yorubas Who Want Amotekun To Fail – Makinde

• Most negative reports on Amotekun are false.

• Community policing panacea to insecurity – Makinde.

• Amotekun didn’t kill seven Fulani herdsmen, Makinde

Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo, says there are people among the Yoruba ethnic group who are badly wishing that the Western Nigeria Security Network, Amotekun, fails and crumbles.

Ekohotblog reports that Makinde disclosed this while addressing journalists at the government house, Agodi, on Wednesday.

He said those wishing for the downfall of Amotekun project are the ones pushing the negative reports and spreading falsehood about the outfit.

The governor, who had said he should be held responsible for the actions of the corps, asked anyone with evidence of any wrongdoing against them to speak out.

The governor said misunderstanding within Amotekun and friction with other security agencies are not inevitable but the most important thing is to work towards bringing everyone together towards achieving a common goal.

Makinde averred that the negative reports about Amotekun are untrue.

“Amotekun is not operating in a vacuum. They are a creation of the law of the state. The Nigerian police is a creation of the Constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria. It is normal that we have inter and intra agency friction where possible, but we will get everybody together and seek alignment towards the same end basically,” Makinde said.

“For the past six weeks that the Amotekun was deployed, we have seen various reports in the news. Most of these reports are good and a few are bad. And of the bad, quite a number are false information and fake news”

The governor makes clarification on reports in some newspapers that Amotekun killed seven Fulani herdsmen in Ibarapa, he said such reports are aimed at fanning the embers of ethnic tension.

“For example, some newspapers carried the news that Amotekun killed seven Fulani herdsmen in Ibarapa. Such a story was circulated to stoke ethnic tension. Whereas, the real story was that Amotekun worked with the community members, including genuine herdsmen, to flush out bad elements in that zone.

“I have to tell you that there are people among us that don’t want Amotekun to succeed and they will use lies and disinformation to push their agenda. We must realise where we are coming from and where we really want to be.”

Makinde, who noted that Amotekun has to work as community policing, added that it is the solution to insecurity in the country.

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“Community policing is the way forward and we have to make it work. If somebody says he is abused by Amotekun and cannot pinpoint the Amotekun personnel in such an area, you are probably not from that neighborhood and you are a fake news carrier,” he said.

“So, as I always say, I know we do have trust deficit between the people and the authorities, and this makes it easier to think the worst of people in authority. But we should not cut our nose to spite our face. We must find a balance so that we do not turn the people trying to protect us to our enemies.”