Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, has responded to the comments attributed to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, declaring ‘Operation Amotekun’ as an illegal outfit.
Amotekun, launched on Thursday in Ibadan, is a security outfit set up by the six South-West governments to tackle kidnapping and other criminal activities in the region.
But days after it was launched Malami said the security outfit is “illegal”.
“The setting up of the paramilitary organisation called Amotekun is illegal and runs contrary to the provisions of the Nigerian law,” AGF said by Malami’s spokesman, Dr. Umar Gwandu, on Tuesday.
But while reacting to the Malami’s verdict, Akeredolu, who is also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, said Malami is yet to back-up his claims with any sections of the Nigerian Constitution.
“When he comes out with relevant portions of the law on the matter, we will consider it and respond adequately as the law stipulates,” Akeredolu said in an interview with Channels Television on Wednesday.
“One thing is clear, laws are not made in the office of the Attorney General; he can only interpret the laws and give positions of government on matters relating to the law,” he added.
The governor added that the governors from the region are yet to meet since the pronouncement from the office of the AGF.
The security network agreement was reached in Ibadan, Oyo State, in June 2019, at a regional security summit. The summit was a reaction to the worsening security situation in the region.
In reaching the decision to put together a security outfit not completely independent of the existing security structure, the regional governments claimed they had secured a green light from President Muhammadu Buhari with inputs from the IGP to go ahead with the plan.
All of the States, except Oyo State, is governed by the ruling All Progressives Congress. Oyo State governor is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party.
