• Interfaith forum backs establishment of Amotekun

The Interfaith Dialogue Forum for Peace has said that Operation Amotekun would help to address the issue of insecurity and criminality in the South West.

The Co-chair, executive council of IDFP, Alhaji Ishaq Sanni, who spoke at a press conference in Abuja on Monday, said the Western Nigeria Security Network was informed by the people’s demand for state police.

He stated, “People were clamouring for the state police because they are the people in the neighbourhood and are in the best position to know the radicals, the hoodlums, the hooligans and all these people around that are causing the crisis.”

“So, when you have this type of thing, it helps. Even though the thing is still contentious, I believe at the end of the day, goverment will understand whichever way they want to do it.”

Sanni made it clear that the Operation Amotekun was just like a vigilante group, insisting that it cannot replace the Nigeria Police Force.

He stated, “The Amotekun is not the police but just like the vigilante. So we know at the end of the day the goverment and the people of South West will reach a consensus and will all agree that we must have neighbourhood policing.”

The IDFP co-chair observed that Army Generals had been kidnapped including senior citizens, adding that the security situation in the country is precarious.

He added, “We cannot say the situation now is as bad as it was before but the problem here is that we are being sentimental and emotional about some of these things.”

“I know before this goverment came into power, Boko Haram was controlling almost everywhere in Borno Sttate but now, it is not like that. So I believe something that started one day will surely end one day,” Sanni noted.

Also speaking, the Co-chair of the executive council, Bishop Sunday Onuoha, said the security situation had improved tremendously compared to last year.

He called on the government to ensure the release of Leah Sharibu and other Boko Haram captives.

“We should hold ourselves accountable to where we did not do well, and that is why we are telling the goverment to ensure the release of Leah Sharibu,” the cleric stated.

(AFP)