We Shall Resist Adeleke’s Attempt To Use Amotekun For Extra-judicial Activities- Osun APC Tells Govt

The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has berated the state Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke over his gimmick to use Amotekun to harass, gag, victimize, intimidate and oppress the major opposition party in the state and subsequently rig the forthcoming 2026 elections in the state.

The people of the state woke up on Monday to be confronted with a nauseating and cacodemonic news that the state House of Assembly has secretly amended the law of the Osun State Security Network Agency and Amotekun Corps(Establishment) and signed into law with the speed of a thunder by the state governor empowering the Amotekun Corps with both investigative and prosecutory powers.

We, as a party, want to impress it on Governor Adeleke and his sycophantic House of Assembly that there is no way that we would allow the brazen rape on the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to stay.

Our resolve stemmed from the fact that the government has no any other aim and motive than to use the security outfit as a political tool to witch-hunt the opposition by silencing them and hounding them into jail on frivolous trumped up charges borne out of political victimization and vindictiveness.

The explanation of the pliable and satellite House of Assembly that: *’No part of the law grants prosecutory power to Amotekun. Section 4(1)(K) of the principal law, clearly requires the Amotekun to forward the case file to the office of the Attorney-General upon the completion of investigation’* is an assault on the sensibility of the peace-loving people of Osun State as it clearly underscores the powers that the Adeleke government illegally vested in the Amotekun to prosecute through another modifiable means.

We want to unequivocally state here that it is not too difficult for Governor Adeleke and those who are thinking for him to have the knowledge that it is illegal for Amotekun to have both investigative and prosecutorial powers as it is against the Constitution and the Police Act.

The Constitution is supreme. The Police Act is a Federal law. Any state law that is against a Federal law or the Constitution is void to the extent of the inconsistency. Sections 4 and 66 of the Police Act empower the police to prosecute while the Attorney-General of the Federation is empowered to prosecute through Section 174 of the 1999 Constitution with the Attorney-General of a state deriving his own power of prosecution from Section 211 of the same 1999 Constitution.

Governor Adeleke and his co-travellers should have a basic understanding of the fact that Amotekun cannot be equated with the Police and it is not the Police and therefore, cannot exercise the functions of the police. The Police is an exclusive arm of the Federal Government via Number 45, Second Schedule of the 1999 Constitution.

The so-called prosecutorial and investigative powers of Amotekun under the new flustering Ademola Adeleke law is therefore, void and unconstitutional, since any law inconsistent with the Constitution is void by way of Section 1(3) of the 1999 Constitution.

Our findings revealed that it was because the police have been found to be unpliable for the dirty and satanic political assignments given to them by the administration of Governor Adeleke that prompted the taking to the illegality of granting prosecutorial and investigative powers to Amotekun.

The unenviable antecedents of the current head of Osun State Amotekun, Mr Isaac Adekunle Omoyele, an ex-Police Officer and former Chief Security Officer of Governor Adeleke, who has an indelible unfavourable history of indictment by the ENDSARS Panel for extra-judicial killings with subsequent recommendation for demotion and prosecution has been a source of concern and worry to the right-thinking members of the Osun public.

Surprisingly, rather than being demoted and prosecuted, Omoyele was promoted and rewarded with a juicy offer of the CSO to Governor Adeleke against the public condemnations, outcries and petitions from the civil society groups.

We shall resist through the instrumentality of the law any attempt by Governor Adeleke through a deceptive means, which ulterior motive is to terrorize, harass and kill the members of the opposition with the concerted plans of rigging the forthcoming elections, to use Amotekun for extra- judicial activities.

e-SIGNED:

Chief KOLA OLABISI, Osun State APC Director of Media and Information.