Nigeria’s Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka has reacted to the declaration of south-west operation Amotekun as illegal by the federal government.
Soyinka warned President Muhammadu Buhari over actions that would lead the country to the point of irreversible division, saying the current security concerns in the country has given birth to the organisation.
According to him, “Whether they like or not Amotekun has come to stay, because it is a creation of the people and you cannot deny a people their fundamental right to protect themselves since government has failed to provide such protection.
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“I refuse to believe that any serious government will condemn the right of people trying to protect themselves. And now some people who have been sleeping all this time and watching citizens killed, farmers sent away from their land are waking up and telling us this initiative is illegal and unconstitutional, they should go back to sleep.”
“I have always been believed passionately in self-policing. If it were possible to eliminate any kind of formal policing, I am for it. My preference is always, as much as possible, for community policing,” he said.
He explained further, “This is to show how effective a determined community force can be. Policing the road is not the same thing as going into the forest to confront kidnappers, herdsmen and terrorists, but the policy remains identical.”