Victor Ogunje in Ado Ekiti
The Ekiti State Government has revealed that its security network, the Amotekun, would deploy ancient, local and modern security techniques to ward off kidnapping, robbery and other heinous crimes from the state.
The Ekiti State Corps Commandant of Amotekun, Brigadier-General Joe Komolafe (Rtd.) disclosed this on Thursday at Efon Alaaye during a sensitisation tour to Ekiti West, Efon Alaaye and Ijero Local government areas of the State.
Brig-Gen Komolafe (Rtd) explained that the security outfit would employ ancient Yoruba tactics of securing territories and fishing out criminals from their hide out.
Komolafe cited the neglect of traditional culture and patterns of exposing criminals as one of the reasons for the rising spate of crimes in the region and charged traditional rulers to deploy their supernatural prowess to secure the lives and properties of their people.
He described the Amotekun as a force of liberation and assured that the security outfit would protect the people of the Southwest from invaders who had constantly constitute threat to the safety of the region.
Komolafe said: “We want people that can enter the bush and give us native intelligence about criminal hide outs.
“People before us rose and fought invaders. We also want to rise and fight invaders. These invaders came with all forms of impunity; they kill, maim, rape and destroy people’s farm produce.”
Earlier, the Chairman of Ekiti State Amotekun Board, Mr. Akin Aregbesola, explained that the tour was to sensitise the traditional rulers on the critical roles they would play in recommending applicants into the outfit.
Aregbesola disclosed that the application into the security outfit was open to all within the ages of 18 and 60 irrespective of their religion as long as they are indigenes and residents of their local governments.
The board chairman stressed that Amotekun is not an empowerment programme but a call to service and implored traditionalist, local hunters, vigilante and others who were vast in native security operations to apply into the outfit.
He further disclosed that the application exercise which was billed to close on Wednesday, July 22 has been extended to Saturday, July 25, to allow applicants to go through the application process.
In his own response, the Alaaye of Efon Kingdom, Oba Emmanuel Aladejare, said the traditional rulers in the axis were in total support of the recruitment process and would continue to provide native support that would guarantee the successful establishment of the security outfit.
The monarch urged the board to set in motion the machinery that would facilitate inter border cooperation with sister security outfits in other states of the region to enable smooth operation to take place at the time the outfit would commence full implementation of its strategies against crime in the South-west states.
The Chairman of Ijero Local Government Area, Mr. Ropo Ige, who volunteered to serve in the Corps, expressed the readiness of the chairmen of all the local governments in the state to support the efforts of the outfit in securing the lives and properties of the people.
