Malami Has No Power To Declare Amotekun Illegal — Makinde

Seyi Makinde, Governor of Oyo State, Wednesday, faulted the position of the Attorney General and Justice Minister, Abubakar Malami, over the legality or otherwise of the South West security outfit, Amotekun.

Makinde, who had earlier met former President Olusegun Obasanjo at his hilltop mansion, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, behind closed doors said the Attorney General has no such powers to declare the outfit illegal.

Makinde who arrived who arrived Abeokuta with few of his aides, went into a closed door meeting which lasted for close to two hours with the former President.

After meeting, Makinde said he was in Abeokuta to greet Obasanjo for the new year as an elder and to wish him well in year 2020.

The Governor also faulted the channel deployed by Malami saying the Governor also got to know of his (Malami’s) position through the social media saying governmental is not run on social media.

Makinde said, “My position is that you don’t run government on social media, if I see a letter or I get a call from the Attorney General of the Federation, telling me what he just said, it will be a different reaction.

“I have been reading just like you read on social media, but I haven’t received anything official to that effect.

“Besides, for a country like Nigeria, the Attorney General can not just wake up and make his own laws, he may interpret and advise the President if there are legal issues, I haven’t seen anything that gives that power to the Attorney General to make that declaration.”

Makinde said the intention of the South West Governors about Amotekun was to play a complimentary role and bridge the cap of security across the region.

“This outfit is complementary to the efforts of Nigerian police and other security agencies. In Oyo State, the government is being placed on four major pillars; Education, Health, Security, and expansion of the economy through agriculture business.

“Security is a major pillar for us and we believe we can’t have any development in an atmosphere that’s not secured. If you look at investment and money coming into our economy, such money is a coward, if such money see anywhere that’s not secured, they will fly and run away.

“So, security is and the security agencies are doing their best but there are still gaps, just like in most sectors of our body of polity, there are gaps; in education, in health and in security, there are gaps and we believe playing complementary role will also help to narrow those gaps.”