The Ondo State Government on Tuesday inaugurated the Ondo State Security Network Agency also known as Operation Amotekun.
A few months ago the bill setting up the security agency was passed into law by the state House of Assembly, and shortly after, the bill was signed into law by the State Governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu.
At the inauguration of the agency held at the Gani Fawehimi Arcade in Akure the state capital, Akeredolu said with the Amotekun in operation, there would be no more room for all kinds criminalities in the state.
No fewer than 192 recruited members of the corps were inaugurated at the ceremony.
The governor expressed optimism that no criminal element would trouble the relative peace enjoyed in the state as the agency had commenced operations.
He said, “It was so horrible that marauders laid siege to the highways as well as in the farmlands waiting to kidnap or devour anyone in sight. With the launch of the Amotekun, we resolved that it shall be no retreat, no surrender. We are not going to be intimidated or blackmailed.
”It is incontrovertible that the existing security framework is being overstretched and we had to devise a means of confronting the challenge of insecurity head-on. That was when the concept of Amotekun came up. As Yorubas, we are not known to surrender to our adversaries and if our forebears did not, we should not.
“On 4th March, this year, just two months after the launch of Amotekun in Ibadan, the Bill setting up the Corps was signed into law, after diligent and thorough work by the State House of Assembly. The import of this is that Amotekun Corps is now a legal entity not just the idea of an individual.”
The governor however noted that the agency was not inaugurated to pursue his second-term agenda.
“I am saying it again, that my ambition is not worth the insecurities that our people are confronted with, where at some point, people were afraid of travelling out of the state,” Akeredolu declared.
The Amotekun corps Commander, Mr Adetunji Adeleye, said the personnel were trained in collaboration with experienced hands drawn from the various security agencies in the state.
He reiterated the corps resolve on zero-tolerance to crime through robust intelligence sharing with security agencies to reduce the spate of criminality in the state.
