
The vehicles and some of the operatives of Special security outfit in Western Nigeria
Chairman of Presidential Advisory Committee against Corruption, PACAC, Prof. Itse Sagay, has declared the establishment of Operation Amotekun by Southwest governors as legal and in line with their constitutional role as chief security officers of their states.
His position opposed that of the Justice Minister and Attorney-general of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, who declared the security outfit illegal.
Governors from Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti, and Lagos States last week Thursday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital launched a security outfit called Amotekun.

Prof. Itsey Sagay: declares Amotekun legal
Sagay in an interview with The Nation said the Police lacked adequate manpower to effectively secure a country of nearly 200 million people, hence the establishment of Amotekun was in order.
“I am positively disposed towards it. I think it is a good beginning not to depend completely on the Federal Government for our security.
“We should begin to rely more and more on ourselves so that those who feel the pain are those who try to take control of the security situation.
“We know that the Police are few; they are stretched; we have about 250,000 policemen in a country of almost 200 million. So, I think these regional security institutions are necessary.
“I believe the police should cooperate with them and help with their training. And I believe eventually, they should even be armed so that we can have a lot more hands and local people involved in security.
“Perhaps that can lead to other benefits, such as economic cooperation and wealth creation; and gradually, we’ll begin to regain what we lost when we lost the regions in the 60s. So, yes, I support it.
“It’s not state police. I think the people who created it have been careful. *Yes, there is a security outfit, but there is nothing in the Constitution that precludes either states or association of states from taking care of their security.*
“There is this popular saying that the governor is the chief security officer of a state. That’s not an empty statement.
“They get a lot of money for security, and I look at this as part of the responsibility of the governors acting jointly to provide greater security in the Southwest.”
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3 Comments
I am really overwhelmed to see someone in this present government that is not too shy or cowed from saying the whole truth so boldly and clearly. God bless you Prof for standing for the right.
I am saluting Sagay today not just because he has come out to provide authentic legal interpretation of the country’s constitutional provision on outfits like Amotekun but solely because he has changed my thinking that he is now a bread and butter politician. I knew him a very long time ago and I was actually present at his professorial inaugural lecture held at the then University of Ife on 3rd June, 1982. Many of his former students that are well known to me had served meritoriously as attorneys general in Nigeria while several others are in the diaspora.
It was Ella Wilcox (1850 – 1919) who said: “To sin by silence, when we should protest, make cowards out of men…” He proceeded to explain that if we all remain silent then development will continue to elude us. In support of the saying by Walter Lippmann that: “Where all men think alike, no one thinks very much”, I think that if people like Itsejuwa Sagay continue to keep silent, then we should all agree that the country is doomed. Once more, I commend his commitment to the country’s upliftment. Thank you.
If amotekun is illigal what about hisbah in the north??
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