Akeredolu berates FG for permitting arms for non-state actors

Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), has criticised the Federal Government for permitting “non-state actors to bear heavy assault weapons while denying the same privilege to the states and federating units” with joint security outfits like the Amotekun Corps.

Akeredolu stated this is a statement he signed on Wednesday, August 31, and issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Richard Olatunde.

The chairman of the South-West Governors’ Forum and the Southern Governors’ Forum condemned the decision of the Federal Government to award a contract for the protection of pipelines in the South-South to a private security company.

The Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, had on Tuesday described as the right decision, its resolve to award the contract for the surveillance of pipelines to a company that a former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, has an interest in.

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Kyari, who spoke at the 49th session of the state house briefing at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said, “We need private contractors to man the right of way to these pipelines…We don’t have access to that and therefore, we put up a framework where contractors were selected through a tender process for people who can do it, not everyone can do it and Tompolo is just mentioned, we’re dealing with corporate entities.

“He may have interest in the company, we’re not dealing with Tompolo, but we know that he has interests in that company.”

In 2020, concerned about the worsening security situation in the South-West geopolitical zone, the governors of the six states inaugurated the South-West security network codenamed Amotekun. The South-East governors followed suit in 2021 and inaugurated a regional security network popularly known as Ebube Agu. But the Federal Government has denied both regional outfits a license to bear arms.

Akeredolu in his statement, said state government-owned security outfits actually need permission to bear assault rifles and not non-state actors or private security firms.

The statement which was titled, ‘Who Actually Needs Weapon?’ read, “The news concerning the purported award of pipeline contracts to some individuals and private organisations by the Federal Government has been unsettling. More disquieting is the barely disguised hostility displayed against either the idea or the actual establishment of security outfits by some State Governments to fill the widening gaps in the scope of security coverage noticeable nationally.”