Curiouser and curiouser it gets by the day. First, the Federal Government opposed Amotekun; now a group made up of Fulani herdsmen and others, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, is blackmailing the South-West region it will not get the 2023 presidential ticked for setting up the security outfit.
The move is suspected to be a ploy to get prime movers and interested parties to the 2023 ticket from the South-West to undermine the security measure, by a group known to back the present administration, because of filial connections.
The administration has been serially accused of favouring the Fulani ethnic stock above others.
Angered by the Fulani group, many have said in public opinion polls that other regions should emulate the South-west.
In a reaction a South-West leader leader, Mr. Tonka Odumakin, exploded: “Miyetti Allah now owns the Presidency which they can gift to who they want and deny who they choose? What insolence? Cowherders threatening a people that produced the first lawyer in 1879 because a lawyer who doesn’t know the law is overreaching himself? Can they go and tell Yoruba in Benin Republic such idiocy…if Yoruba would be colonised, is it by those we should employ on their ranches?
“To hell with their Presidency if the condition for it is that we must allow them to continue to waste the lives of our people.
“Who told these people Yoruba cannot opt for self-determination and have our own president? If they see the protection of our lives as politics, we are definitely in a wrong and impossible country”.
According to a Punct report, the group has warned Southwest governors to withdraw their support for Western Nigeria Security outfit, codenamed ‘Operation Amotekun’, adding that their continued support for Operation Amotekun may hurt the Southwest’s chances of getting the Presidency in 2023.
The National Secretary of the group, Alhassan Saleh, said this during an interview with The PUNCH on Wednesday.
Saleh said Miyetti Allah was disappointed in the South-West intelligentsia for supporting the outfit.
He said, “This Amotekun scheme is political and is not the solution to the problem of insecurity. What the South-West governors should have done is to continue to push for state police. Where did they expect to get the funding from at a time some of them are struggling to pay salaries?
“It is best they give up on this idea because it may affect the chances of the South-West to produce the President in 2023. The thinking is that if the South-West, a major stakeholder in this government, can be toying with this idea now, they may do worse when they get to power.”
The group also hailed the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN, for describing Amotekun as an illegal outfit.
Saleh said the AGF ought to have spoken long ago instead of waiting for things to have reached an advanced stage.
“We are in agreement with the AGF that Amotekun is illegal. In fact, we are unhappy that it took the AGF this long to react,” he said.