Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has said it is illegal for the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), not to license the South-West Security Network Agency, also known as Amotekun, to bear arms.
Falana, who spoke on a PUNCH Online interview programme, The Roundtable, on Friday, argued that if a private citizen can apply for a licence to bear arms for self-defence, the Amotekun Corps are also entitled to the same benefit.
He tasked the state governors in the region to approach the authorities in Abuja for the Amotekun operatives to bear arms to effectively tackle the myriad of security challenges ranging from kidnapping, banditry to rape, among other challenges, confronting the South-West region in recent times.
The overwhelming insecurity in the region had forced the six governors of the South-West to inaugurate the security outfit to tackle peculiar security threats in the region. The Amotekun Corps had also got the constitutional backing of the six state assemblies in the region.
Ondo, Ogun, Oyo and Ekiti states have since kick-started the operations of the security outfit endorsed by the governments of the six South-West states last year.
Falana however said it was suicidal for the operatives of Amotekun to carry on without bearing arms because the criminal elements they were to confront use sophisticated weapons.
The senior advocate said, “You set up a security outfit like the Amotekun Corps without arms and ammunition.
You are either risking the lives of the men and women in that organisation or you are giving people a false sense of security.
“I have advised our governors to apply for licences for those young men and women to bear arms.
My argument is this: if an individual can apply for licence to bear arms to defend himself and his family members, it is illegal not to give licences to about 5,000 or 10,000 young men and women to protect a state like Lagos of about 20 million.
And if they refuse to give the licences, we must go to court and accuse the authorities in Abuja of endangering the lives of people in Lagos. We must get to that level.
“We can’t have members of the neighbourhood watch to guide people without arms and ammunition, members of the Amotekun Corps without arms and ammunition, yet the people you are asking them to confront are armed with AK-47 and rounds of ammunition. For me, that is not security.
“There is even a section of the constitution, Section 220, that empowers a governor to ask for military training in the state because every Nigerian is entitled to military training but pending the time the National Assembly would enact a law to achieve that objective, a state government can ask the authorities in Abuja.
We have facilities for military training. Can you allow our citizens to acquire military training? It is in the constitution.”
The human rights advocate also said the government had failed the people, urging the citizenry to mobilise to make the government alive to its responsibility of protecting lives and property.
“It has got to that stage when every community has to organise its security because we can no longer depend on the government,” he said.
He further accused the Buhari regime and the Presidency of defending criminal elements among the nomadic Fulani herdsmen scattered all over the country.
Oyo and Ondo states have been in the eye of the storm lately over security challenges and the moves to check the activities of killer herdsmen.
A popular Yoruba rights activist, Sunday Adeyemo, well known as Sunday Igboho, had issued a seven-day notice to quit to herdsmen accused of crimes in the Ibarapa area of Oyo and enforced same.
Governor Rotimi Akerdolu of Ondo State also said herdsmen must register with the state government or vacate the state forest reserves.
Commenting on the issues, Falana said, “That is why I have accused the Buhari administration of portraying itself as defending herders and not other Nigerians because Almajiris have been deported, beggars and the destitute (people) have been deported but the President never defended them. The government never raised any constitutional issues.
“My position is that the government can stop the citizens from taking the law into their own hands to assure the people in concrete terms of the security of their lives and property. It is a simple and straight forward matter.
“We have elected people into offices; it is the duty of the government to defend us. And I expect Nigerians to mobilise and compel the government to guarantee the security of lives of everybody. So, it is not about citizens attacking one another; it is about not allowing the government to dodge their responsibilities to the people.
“Section14, sub-section 2b provides that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government, it does not say, the security of the people shall be the responsibility of any citizen and the government must perform the duty and there are solutions to these problems that have not been addressed.”
The rights advocate advised victims of kidnap who paid ransoms to secure their release to approach the government to refund them.
He said, “To Nigerians who pay ransoms, please ask the government to refund the money. If the government does not refund the money, we must have a test case. Nigerians must challenge the government. The government has to pay instead of private people. Then, the government will know it has a duty to protect citizens.”
“Kidnapping is not limited to the South-West; it is a national phenomenon. Banditry, terrorism, armed robbery, kidnapping and other violent crimes have to be addressed holistically by the government and that is the only way to stop some of these diversionary tactics going on all over the place.
People attacking one another, (and doing) ethnic profiling. It is the responsibility of the government to protect
He added, “The Federal Government or the Presidency must not give the impression that some Nigerians are superior to another.
The government must protect the lives and property of every citizen. That is the only way to show that the government is fair and just to the entire country.”
Credit: The Punch