- As PDP warns against deploying them to intimidate and harass opponents at the poll
The Deputy Governor of Ondo State and the candidate of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) in the forthcoming governorship election in the state, Hon. Agboola Ajayi, threw aside political differences to endorse and support the newly established zonal Security Network known as Amotekun.
Nigerian Tribune reports that Ajayi described the new security outfit as the answer to the yearnings of the people of the state and the south-west region noted that many lives had been lost in the past due to unchecked activities of the criminals in the zone.
Speaking on his behalf, the Chief Press Secretary to the deputy governor, Mr Babatope Okeowo, said Ajayi is never against the security outfit and would continue to give adequate support that would make Amotekun achieve the purpose of its establishment.
Okeowo said “The deputy governor is not against Amotekun, I can recall that he attended the establishment of the programme in Ibadan. We were there together and he will never toy with anything that will affect the security of his people.
“He also spoke about the need for beefing up our security using community method.
“This is necessary for the security outfit to achieve the desired goal of recruiting personnel of impeccable character to curb insecurity at the grassroots and secure the lives of the people in the south-west region of the country”
However, Ajayi’s endorsement of the security scheme is coming up some three days after the PDP kicked against Akeredolu’s inauguration of the outfit, describing the development as hurriedly put together to suppress the people.
The National Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, has cautioned Akeredolu to avoid the temptation of using the Security Network in rigging the October 19 governorship election in the state.
The PDP national chairman was quoted to have said on Friday while inaugurating the party’s National Campaign Council for Ondo State that “Intelligence available to us shows that the outgoing APC Government in Ondo State in its panic has hurriedly gone ahead to launch the local security outfit Amotekun, with the aim of deploying them to intimidate and harass opponents.
“We want to warn that state security outfits are at experimental stages and any abuse will mean the end of it. The people of the South-west desired Amotekun, to secure them, anything otherwise would be undermining the will of the people,”
The candidate of the PDP, Eyitayo Jegede, who spoke through the Head, Media Research of his Campaign Organisation, Kayode Fasua, said “my prayers and hope are that it (Amotekun) will not be misused.
But commending the initiative, Ajayi said the people of the Southwest needed to be protected, hence the Amotekun initiative was desirable and acceptable to him, but warned against the use of the outfit for political reasons, especially during elections.
Ajayi, the embattled deputy governor of the state, and the state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, who has been the arrowhead of the Amotekun outfit and the chairman of the Southwest Governors’ Forum
have parted ways some few months ago
Ajayi is running against Akeredolu in October 10 election as the governorship candidate of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) having dumped the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) after losing the ticket to Eyitayo Jegede.
The deputy governor had defected to the PDP in June this year, citing irreconcilable differences with Governor Akeredolu.
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