Security: Ortom gives FG one month dealdine to approve Ak-47 licence; Amotekun, others can’t tackle menace _ El-Rufai

Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom has given a one-month ultimatum to the federal government to approve his letter to procure an AK-47 riffle licence.

At the passing out parade of the second batch of the State Volunteer Community Guards, Ortom said that he had applied for the approval of the license but regretted that for over three months he was yet to get a response from the federal government.

He said the procurement of the rifles would strengthen the state’s logistic support base and defence capability.

Ortom, who also said that the federal and state governments were currently working to achieve state policing, however, explained that Benue people would have the final say if the Federal Government failed to grant the request for an arms licence.

Also Read: Akeredolu says Amotekun must be given arms to carry out Its duties, “there is no state, not Katsina, has been authorized to procure automatic weapons for their security outfits _ FG

But the Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has warned that arming state security outfits was not enough to end insecurity in the country, as according to him, doing so would amount to a simplistic approach to combatting “sophisticated” non-state actors that sometimes ”outgun the military.”

The governor spoke shortly before his Benue State counterpart, Samuel Ortom, issued a one-month ultimatum to the Federal Government to grant the state’s Community Volunteer Guards a license to bear AK-47s.

Reminiscing the lingering friction between FG and State governments over arming sub-national security outfits with AK47, the Chairman of South-west Governors’ Forum and Governor of Ondo State, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, had insisted that state security outfits in the country, backed by law must have access to sophisticated weapons to combat insecurity.

Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, a second-term governor and the Chairman of the Southern Governors’ Forum explained that the incontestable authority of the state must be imposed in the country, which was being threatened by brazen conflict entrepreneurs as well as armed and audacious non-state actors.

He spoke in Akure at the Passing-Out Parade of Courses 3 and 4 of the State Amotekun Corps.

He reasoned that state security outfits backed by law, whether in western Nigeria, Katsina, Borno, Benue or any northern state, must have access to the same sophisticated weapons that the marauders had. He said his administration would continue to support the operational capacity of all security agencies in the state, both in terms of equipment and the welfare of their personnel.

The governor emphasised that the passing out ceremony was a reminder of the need to strategise and tackle the current security situation, which he said had been left to snowball into existential crises across Nigeria. He stated that the commitment of his administration to the safety and welfare of the people of the state and investors remained unshaken.

Akeredolu noted that the current internal security framework in the country was ineffectual. He submitted that the response of the sub-nationals by setting up their own outfits was welcome and necessary.

“The Western Nigeria Security Network, Amotekun Corps, as a response, is now not just the first line of defence, but the ultimate bulwark in the protection of a way of life and of a civilisation.

“The Amotekun Corps must be given the tools to carry out its now pivotal, indispensable duties. For centuries, we have been admonished that ‘a bad workman blames his tools,’ in the case of Amotekun Corps, the workman is expected to function without good tools.

He added, “Without providing the sub-national security forces to be a counter-balancing force we have a crisis which strikes at the heart of the conception and the definition of the state itself.

“It is not just the definition of the state, the state itself is under existential threat. The modern state is defined by treaties. The conception of the modern state beatified by these treaties gives it ‘an incontestable monopoly of the means of violence, intimidation, and coercion”.

According to the governor, “Those passing out today have undergone rigorous training at great expense to the state. The training will not end here, it will be continuous. However, no amount of training will mask the debilitation of fighting with one arm tied against implacable foes.”

Akeredolu added that Amotekun “must therefore be armed and will be armed and be backed by law, otherwise, the training will be inadequate and will mean placing the lives of the corps in danger.”

Presidential media aide Garba Shehu in response to the alleged approval of AK47 for Katsina State by FG said, “there is no state, not Katsina, not any other state in the federation, that has been authorized to procure automatic weapons for their security outfits.

“Under this administration, the President has repeatedly made it clear that nobody is allowed to illegally carry AK-47 or any other automatic weapons and that they must surrender them.”

The media aide noted in a statement that “Where they fail to do so, the law enforcement agencies have been given clear directives to deal with any such outlaws.

“Under the existing regulations, only the Office of the National Security Adviser can issue such authorization, upon proper clearance by the President and Commander-in-Chief and as it is at this moment, no such approvals have been issued to any state government.”