Anthonia Duru
Yoruba Leader and worldwide President of the Yoruba World Congress, Prof. (Senator) Banji Akintoye, has commended the State Houses of Assembly of states of the Yoruba Southwest for their dutiful and expeditious passage of the law establishing Amotekun.
In a statement issued at the Yoruba World Congress Headquarters in Lagos, the Yoruba Leader announced ” I am delighted to congratulate the Houses of Assembly of our Yoruba states, on behalf Yoruba people at home and in the Diaspora, for the steadfastness and swiftness with which the legislators have passed the Amotekun Bill”.
“The legislators have shown that they understand the great importance of the sanctity of life and security of lives and properties to Yoruba People”, said Akintoye.
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He added that it was a joy to share moments of the Public Hearings with Yoruba people from across the world.
“The Public Hearings confirmed to all our Yoruba kith and kin, and to all the world, that we Yoruba are a respectably organized and very democratic nation”, said Akintoye.
Akintoye focused particular attention on the peculiar clause in the Lagos State law which provides that “The recruitment into Amotekun – — shall be open to an indigene of the communities where they seek to serve, or to residents who have spent not less than 20 years in the community and understand the native language”.
The Yoruba Leader noted that the peculiarity is nothing to be worried about as he is confident that the Lagos state legislators, like all their counterparts across Yoruba States, understand the importance of Amotekun to Yoruba people.
The statement reads” For Akintoye, this peculiar clause in the Lagos State law is obviously meant by its authors to open the door to the easy recruitment of millions of Yoruba people who are not indigenes of Lagos State but who have long resided in Lagos State and who desire to serve Amotekun in any part of Lagos State”.
” I have confidence that the State Governors who gave Amotekun to their Yoruba people, the legislators who are making the law for Amotekun, and the agencies that will set up and manage Amotekun, all know fully well that Amotekun is an exclusive response of the Yoruba people to insecurity in Yorubaland, insecurity that is being mostly imported from some other regions of Nigeria into the Yoruba homeland”
“I am sure that everybody is fully aware that Yoruba people insist on their exclusive right and duty to defend their endangered homeland, and that they will find it very difficult to tolerate the recruitment of non-Yoruba persons for the service of Amotekun”, said the Yoruba Leader
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Akintoye called on all Yoruba community leaders to guide and inform people in their communities on how to participate in the Amotekun Operation.
He also noted ” No matter what Government does or does not do, security in the Yoruba homeland remains a duty for all Yoruba people”
He urged all Yoruba to continue to keep vigil and to continue to be their brother’s keepers.