IGP’ll Determine Amotekun’s Structure, Presidency Insists

The Presidency says the Western Nigerian Security Network codenamed ‘Operation Amotekun’, will now be run in accordance with the structure defined by the Inspector-General of Police.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme, yesterday.
Shehu was speaking on the approval of N13billion by the Federal Government for community policing across the 36 states of the federation.
He said, “Whatever name they go by, Amotekun or whatever, will be streamlined and they will be run in accordance with the structure as defined by the Inspector-General of Police. They will be localised, they will be owned by local communities, they will be managed by them.”
The President’s spokesman further stated that the community policing structure would be the same across the 36 states and whatever does not conform with the national structure would not be “in the scheme of things”.
Shehu added, “You know the constitution of the committees will be defined as including council chairmen, traditional rulers, religious leaders, civil society groups and all of that. So, you are going to have a single type structure of community policing permitted all across the country and whatever is not in line with this does not have a place in the scheme of things. That is my understanding.”
When asked whether the new community policing being introduced by the Federal Government would not be in conflict with Amotekun which was created by Houses of Assembly in the six South-West states, the President’s spokesman said the conflict would only be due to perception.
He said, “They can choose their nomenclature, it doesn’t make a difference.