I will Purchase Sophisticated Arms For Amotekun – Akeredolu

 Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo state has vowed to purchase sophisticated arms and ammunition for operatives of the State Security Network codenamed Amotekun Corps.

Akeredolu said his decision was to fulfill its administration’s legal, constitutional and moral duty to the citizens of the State by acquiring arms to protect them.

The Ondo Governor’s action was a sequel to a video making the rounds showing the equivalent of the Western Nigeria Security Network (Amotekun Corps) in Katsina, obtaining the approval of the Federal Government to bear arms.

Akeredolu said such action by the Federal Government was fraught with great dangers.

Akeredolu stated that denying Amotekun the urgently needed rights, to legitimately bear arms was a repudiation of the basis of true federalism which Nigerians have been clamoring for.

According to him: “That Katsina was able to arm its state security force, with the display of AK47 means we are pursuing one country, two systems ” solution to the national question. If the Katsina situation confers advantages on some, in the face of commonly faced existential threats, it means that our unitary policing system, which has failed, is a deliberate method of subjugation that must be challenged.

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“The Independence agreement was based on a democratic arrangement to have a federal state and devolved internal security mechanics. We must go back to that agreement. Denying Amotekun the right to bear arms exposes the Southwest to life-threatening marauders and organized crime. It is also deliberate destruction of our agricultural sector. It is an existential threat.

“We want to reiterate, that what is sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander. This is more so, given that the bandits have unchecked access to sophisticated weapons. The State government cannot look on while its citizens are being terrorized and murdered with impunity. We will defend our people.”