Makinde meets with IGP over Amotekun, LG crisis

Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo state, on Wednesday met with Mohammed Adamu, inspector-general of police (IGP), over the local government crisis rocking the state and the establishment of Amotekun.

Makinde had sacked the chairmen when he resumed office in May but Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation, declared his act unconstitutional.

The IGP subsequently asked Shina Olukolu, Oyo state commissioner of police, to reinstate the sacked chairmen in compliance with the directive of the AGF.

On Monday, some of the sacked chairmen forced their ways back into their offices to resume duty.

The state government had accused them of vandalising public property while pledging to deal with those found wanting.

When he met with the IGP on Wednesday, Makinde described himself as a law-abiding citizen,  saying he would obey the judgment of the court once the pending appeals on the local government dissolution in the state are decided.

“We are here basically to discuss two things. You all must have heard about the issue of local government administration in Oyo State,” Taiwo Adisa, chief press secretary to the governor, quoted him to have said.

“There is a court order yesterday restraining the IG, the CP, the AIG from giving unilateral order regarding the issue of local government administration in Oyo State.

“I came to brief the Inspector General that this is the situation. We do not want chaos in Oyo State. I personally, am law-abiding; if there is a court judgement, I would obey it and he has given me the assurance that once he gets the copy of the court order, he would do the needful.”

He maintained that the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN) code-named “Amotekun”, was work in progress and that the south-west governors were already “operationalising it”.

He added that the governors would further meet with the IGP to review the situation on the intervention.

“Secondly, everybody is aware of the issue with Amotekun; we deliberated on it and we had an agreement in principle to have the governors of the South-West meet with him to review the situation,” he said.

“Amotekun is work in progress, we are trying to operationalise it and in doing that, all the relevant stakeholders would have to align.

“We are trying to build a new country where the rule of law is supreme, so everybody should be law-abiding, ensure that they don’t do anything that would create lawlessness.”