Amotekun

Last updated

Western Nigeria Security Network
Amotekun.jpg
ActiveJanuary 9, 2020;4 years ago (2020-01-09)
CountryFlag of Nigeria.svg  Nigeria
Type
Role
Size10,000
Headquarters Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria
Nickname(s)Amotekun
Website https://www.amotekunekiti.org/joining/

The Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN), codenamed Operation Amotekun (Yoruba for "Leopard" or "Cheetah") and simply known as the Amotekun, is a security outfit based in all the six states of the South Western, Nigeria, responsible for curbing insecurity in the region. [1] It was founded on 9 January 2020 in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria as the first regional security outfit initiated by a geopolitical zone in Nigeria. [2] [3]

Contents

History

Amotekun is a Yoruba word that means "One that looks like a leopard," leopard being translated to "amotekun." Because of this, Amotekun properly means cheetah, but as in this case, it is often mistransliterated to leopard. [4] Operation Amotekun (Leopard) was established on 9 January 2020 by the six state governors of all the South Western states of Nigeria, namely; Lagos State, Oyo State, Ogun State, Ondo State, Osun State and Ekiti State. [5] The establishment of the security outfit was subject to the decision by all the six state governors at the regional security summit held in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria in June 2019 through Development Agenda for Western Nigeria Commission (DAWN). [6] In support of the outfit, all the six state governors contributed 20 vehicles each, except Oyo that contributed 33 vehicles, in order to assist the operatives in carrying out their duties, making a total of 133 vehicles for the startup, they also procured 100 units of motorcycles each, making a total of 600 motorcycles. [7] The members of the outfit were drawn from local hunters, the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Agbekoya, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and vigilante group. [8]

Operation

The operatives of the security outfit will assist police, other security agencies and traditional rulers in combating terrorism, banditry, armed robbery, kidnapping and also help in settling herdsmen and farmers contentions in the region. [9] For the startup, Lagos, Osun and Ekiti states, recruited 1,320 operatives for the operation, while they will carry dane guns like local hunters, operating in about 52 deadly blackspots all over the southwest region. [10]

Controversy

On 13 January 2020, the Nigeria police warned that they will arrest any operative of the outfit that carries illegal arms. [11]

On 14 January 2020, the Federal government of Nigeria declared Operation Amotekun as an illegal operation, stating that it is not backed by the Nigerian constitution. [12]

On 23 January 2020, the vice president of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo, met with the six state governors of the south western Nigeria and they all agreed to work together towards the progress of Operation Amotekun. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ibadan</span> Capital city of Oyo State, Nigeria

Ibadan is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 2,649,000 as of 2021, and over 3 million people within its metropolitan area. It is one of the country's largest cities by geographical area. At the time of Nigeria's independence in 1960, Ibadan was the largest and most populous city in the country, and the second-most populous in Africa behind Cairo. Ibadan is ranked one of the fastest-growing cities in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the UN Human Settlements Program (2022). It is also ranked third in West Africa in the tech startups index. Ibadan joined the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yorubaland</span> Cultural region of the Yoruba people in West Africa

Yorubaland is the homeland and cultural region of the Yoruba people in West Africa. It spans the modern-day countries of Nigeria, Togo and Benin, and covers a total land area of 142,114 km2 (54,871 sq mi). Of this land area, 106,016 km2 (74.6%) lies within Nigeria, 18.9% in Benin, and the remaining 6.5% is in Togo. Prior to European colonization, a portion of this area was known as Yoruba country. The geo-cultural space contains an estimated 55 million people, the majority of this population being ethnic Yoruba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ogun State</span> State of Nigeria

Ogun State is a state in southwestern Nigeria. As a Nigerian state, Ogun is the second most industrialised state after Lagos, with a focus on metal processing. It has good road and rail connections to the harbours in Lagos and Lekki. Wole Soyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 1986, lives in Ogun.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ekiti State</span> State of Nigeria

Ekiti State is a state in southwestern Nigeria, bordered to the North by Kwara State for 61 km, to the Northeast by Kogi State for 92 km, to the South and Southeast by Ondo State, and to the West by Osun State for 84 km. Named for the Ekiti people—the Yoruba subgroup that make up the majority of the state's population—Ekiti State was carved out from a part of Ondo State in 1996 and has its capital as the city of Ado-Ekiti.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ilesa</span> City in Osun state

Ilesa is a historic city located in the Osun State, southwest Nigeria; it is also the name of a historic kingdom centred on that town. The state is ruled by a monarch bearing the title of the Owa Obokun Adimula of Ijesaland. The state of Ilesa consisted of Ilesa itself and a number of smaller surrounding cities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osun State</span> State of Nigeria

Osun State, occasionally known as the State of Osun by the state government, is a state in southwestern Nigeria; bounded to the east by Ekiti and Ondo states for 84 km and for 78 km respectively, to the north by Kwara State for 73 km, to the south by Ogun State for 84 km and to the west by Oyo State, mostly across the River Osun. Named for the River Osun—a vital river which flows through the state—the state was formed from the southeast of Oyo State on 27 August 1991 and has its capital as the city of Osogbo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oyo State</span> State of Nigeria

Oyo State is an inland state in southwestern Nigeria. Its capital is Ibadan, the third most populous city in the country and formerly the second most populous city in Africa. Oyo State is bordered to the north by Kwara State for 337 km, to the east by Osun State for 187 km, partly across the River Osun, and to the south by Ogun State, and to the west by the Republic of Benin for 98 km. With a projected population of 7,976,100 in 2022, Oyo State is the sixth most populous in the Nigeria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olagunsoye Oyinlola</span> Nigerian politician and general (born 1951)

Ọlagunsoye Oyinlọla is a retired Nigerian general, he became governor of Osun State, Nigeria in May 2003, and was reelected in 2007. He was a member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). On 26 November 2010 a court of appeals nullified his election. He later defected to the APC shortly before the 2014 Osun State governorship election. He was former military administrator of Lagos State.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ayo Fayose</span> Nigerian politician (born 1960)

Peter Ayodele Fayose ; born 15 November 1960) is a Nigerian politician who served as governor of Ekiti State from 2003 to 2006, and again from 2014 to 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Osun River</span> River in Osun State, Nigeria

The Oṣun River, Yoruba: Odò Ọ̀ṣun, is a river of Yorubaland that rises in Ekiti State and flows westwards into Osun State before turning southwestwards at its confluence with the Erinle River near the town of Ede and then heading south at the Asejire reservoir flowing though the rest of the state and Ogun State in Southwestern Nigeria before eventually discharging into the Lekki Lagoon and the Atlantic at the Gulf of Guinea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Action Congress of Nigeria</span> Political party

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), formerly known as Action Congress (AC), was a Nigerian political party formed via the merger of a faction of Alliance for Democracy, the Justice Party, the Advance Congress of Democrats, and several other minor political parties in September 2006. The party controlled Lagos. It was regarded as a natural successor to the progressive politics more closely associated with the Action Group and Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the First and Second Republics respectively. However, criticism of the party's more pragmatic and less ideological political outlook associated with AG and UPN, has made many argue it was less of a worthy political heir. The Party had strong presence in the South West, Mid-West and North Central Regions. Lagos, Edo, Ekiti, Kogi, Ondo, Bauchi, Plateau, Niger, Adamawa, Oyo and Osun states by far accounts for majority of the party's presence and discernible power base.

The former Western State of Nigeria was formed in 1967 when the Western Region was subdivided into the states of Lagos and Western State. Its capital was Ibadan, which was the capital of the old region. These states make up majority ethnic Yoruba states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ladoke Akintola University of Technology</span> Public university in Ogbomoso, Nigeria

Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) is a tertiary institution located in Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria. The university enrolls over 30,000 students and employs more than 3,000 workers including contract staff.

The Yoruba Academy is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental, multi-disciplinary institution set up to shepherd the growth and development of Yorùbá language, arts, and culture, through collaboration with scholars, politicians, businessmen and experts in Yoruba language, culture, economics, law, science and technology, and governance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abiola Ajimobi</span> Nigerian politician (1949–2020)

Isiaka Abiola Adeyemi Ajimobi was a Nigerian politician who served as governor of Oyo State from 2011 to 2019, he was the first person elected to the office twice.

The Ibadan Province is an ecclesiastical province of the Church of Nigeria. It was created when the division into ecclesiastical provinces was adopted in 2002, and it comprises 19 dioceses, 117 archdeaconries and 623 parishes.

The South West is the one of the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria representing both a geographic and political region of the country's southwest. It comprises six states – Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, and Oyo. It makes up part of Yorubaland in Nigeria, with Kwara and parts of Kogi completing it.

The Kiriji War, also known as the Ekiti–Parapo War, was a 16-year-long civil war between the subethnic kingdoms of the Yoruba people, specifically divided between the Western Yoruba, which was mainly the Ibadan and Oyo-speaking Yorubas, and the Eastern Yoruba, who were the Ekiti people, Ijesha, Ijebu people, and others.

The Oyo State House of Assembly is the legislative arm of the government of Oyo State of Nigeria. It is a unicameral legislature with 33 members elected from the 33 local government areas of the state.

Events in the year 2022 in Nigeria.

References

  1. "Operation Amotekun: Western Nigeria governors launch security outfit". P.M. News. 9 January 2020. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  2. "South West governors explain why operation Amotekun was established". Pulse NG. 9 January 2020. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  3. Rasheed, Olawale (15 January 2020). "The Real Significance Of Amotekun". Nigerian Tribune . Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  4. Bamidele, Oladayo (30 January 2020). "Nigeria's Operation Àmò̩té̩kùn: Was it named after a leopard, cheetah or tiger?". Global Voices. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
  5. Urowayino, Jeremiah (10 January 2020). "Amotekun not agenda to divide Nigeria— S'West govs". Vanguard Newspaper . Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  6. Ojelu, Henry (10 January 2020). "Constitutional implication of Operation Amotekun". Vanguard Newspaper . Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  7. Bisi, Oladele; Adeniran, Yinka (10 January 2020). "Governors: Amotekun not a parallel security outfit". The Nation Nigeria . Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  8. "South West plans legal action as FG declares Amotekun illegal". The Punch. 15 January 2020. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  9. "Amotekun: Inside South-West security outfit". Daily Trust. 12 January 2020. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  10. "Operation Amotekun: Lagos, Osun, Ekiti to recruit 1,320 militiamen". The Punch. 11 January 2020. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  11. "Operation Amotekun: Carry illegal arms, be arrested, police warn OPC, hunters". The Punch. 13 January 2020. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  12. "BREAKING: Nigerian Government Declares 'Operation Amotekun' Illegal". Sahara Reporters. 14 January 2020. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
  13. "Operation Amotekun: Govs meet Osinbajo, to back exercise with law". The Punch . Retrieved 31 January 2020.