‘You Can Join Amotekun If You’ve Spent 20 Years In Lagos, Speak Yoruba’
There are indications that only indigenes, or residents of Lagos State who have spent 20 years in the area and can speak the native Yoruba language, will be members of the Amotekun corps in the state.
This is parts of the recommendations of Lagos State House of Assembly committee the House adopted on Monday.
The House of Assembly Committee on Information, Strategy and Security chaired by Mr. Tunde Braimoh, had held a public hearing last Monday to get inputs from stakeholders.
Braimoh, while presenting the report, stated that the stakeholders at the public hearing made some observations.
One of them was the need to amend the long title of the Bill to reflect the strategic importance of the Amotekun in the operation of the agency.
Another is to create a new section to cater for the tactical training of the Corps; and that considerations should be given to uneducated hunters and other skilled members of the community. According to him, “the Corps also should be able to collaborate and cooperate with security agencies in other states of the federation; that the law should prohibit the use or employment of the Amotekun Corps by any person or authority for political or personal use; “There should be proper designation and clarification of the Amotekun symbol, and it is important to provide for insurance or other compensatory schemes for the Corps.”
The Committee of the Assembly made the following recommendations: that the title be redrafted as Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps and Amotekun Corps (Amendment) Law, 2020; that the logo of the Amotekun shall remain the leopard and not cheetah; “That the recruitment into the Amotekun of the agency shall be open to an indigene of the communities, where they seek to serve or to residents who have spent not less than 20 years in the community and understand the native language, among others. Contributing, Noheem Adams observed that Section 34(7), which states that the Amotekun Corps Commander’s appointment for a term of four years and subject to the confirmation of the House of Assembly, should be made five years.
Meanwhile, Speaker of the House of Assembly, Mr. Mudashiru Obasa, assured that all necessary corrections made would be taken into consideration.
Thereafter, the House adopted the recommendations as the resolutions of the House.
