The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu,on Wednesday approved the take-off of the Southwest security outfit codenamed Amotekun.
The security network is expected to be launched today at the Oyo State Government House in Ibadan.
According to Daily Trust Reports, the IGP gave the approval at the Force Headquarters in Abuja, the nation’s capital when he met with Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi.
It would be recalled that the IGP had earlier summoned all the six governors of the zone to an emergency meeting for clarifications on grey areas of the operations of the security network.
After the meeting, it was learnt that the IGP granted that Amotekun be launched as it was a fallout of the southwest security summit organised by the police last year.
The report also added that the IGP approved that Operation Amotekun be launched, as the spokesman of the Nigeria Police Force, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Frank Mba, confirmed that the police boss was not opposed to the its creation.
Mba disclosed that the IGP, however, insisted that the operations of Amotekun must be in line with the national security policy.
“The Nigeria Police Force, under the leadership of the IGP Mohammed Adamu, is not opposed to any legitimate and community-based efforts aimed at tackling crime and criminality in any part of Nigeria.
“The IGP would insist that those efforts must be legitimate and be in line with our national security policy and compatible to the national security architecture”, he said.
Mba maintained that the IGP was working with the Southwest governors to streamline the operations of Amotekun in line with the community policing programme endorsed by President Mohammadu Buhari.
