Fayemi, who is also the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), spoke at the 17th edition of the Daily Trust Dialogue in Abuja.
According to him, Amotekun is not a duplication or replacement for the Nigeria Police but was established to complement the existing security agencies.

The Federal Government had through the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, proclaimed the joint security outfit as illegal.

Malami said that the establishment of army, police and other security outfits was on the exclusive list which could only be exercised by the Federal Government.

But Fayemi argued that while some commentators see conflict in the establishment of Amotokun, the move would further deepen public debate on the idea of community policing. “We see Amotekun as a logical end product to the community police debate. That is why we say it is to complement the police in response to security challenges, information gathering and so on. In the process of doing this, the conventional security agencies were taken along and they have agreed to collaborate with us.

“They agreed that there is a need for multi-dimensional solutions to our security challenges, the paradigm shift which is the direct involvement of local population and government in the grassroots for protection. It is a model open to public scrutiny in improving the quality of the protection of the people,” he said.