Amotekun Will Fail – Alao Akala Predicts
Adebayo Alao-Akala, a former governor of Oyo State, has said Amotekun, the joint security outfit in the south-west, will fail except in Lagos.
He said this in his memoir titled: ‘Amazing Grace’, scheduled for launch in June as part of his 70th birthday celebration.
Alao-Akala, a former assistant commissioner of police, said the outfit will fail because of leadership challenges. He faulted the appointment of retired military men as director-generals of the corps. He said retired police officers would have been more appropriate as they were trained in internal security.
“The Amotekun Corp will fail in the South-West states except for Lagos. The outfit is supposed to take care of the security of the people and their property across the zone but it will fail in every state except Lagos because the right people were not appointed to head it,” he said.
“You cannot expect a soldier to head Amotekun successfully. A police officer is trained specially on internal security management. If fundamentally the foundation is weak whatever you want to put on it would be weak. When you have a soldier there, he is taught how to kill. The governors don’t get it right by appointing ex-military men to head the outfits in the other states.
“If a retired senior police officer was appointed as the head of the Amotekun outfit in a state, the Commissioner of Police in the state would respect him as his former superior. A retired Army officer would want to be forceful in his approach. Remember that only the police can prosecute criminals, Amotekun cannot, so they need the cooperation of the police.
“The Amotekun personnel are not armed; they will be successful if they collaborate with the police by calling for support while trying to burst crimes in their respective states and localities.”
South-west governors had launched Amotekun on January 9, as a regional security initiative.
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