Report: Operation Amotekun Faces Legal Hurdles as Police Prohibit Operatives from Bearing Arms

Ololade Adeyanju/

Police have warned operatives of the Western Nigeria Security Group codenamed Operation Amotekun against carrying prohibited firearms.

The group, according to reports, comprises the Oodua Peoples Congress, the Vigilante Group of Nigeria, the South-West Hunters Association, the South-West Agbekoya Group, Agbekoya Farmers Society Group, Yoruba Youth Council and the Community Security Awareness Initiative Corps of Nigeria.

According to a report by Punch newspaper, the police commands in Ekiti, Ogun and Ondo states disclosed at the weekend that any member the group caught with firearms would be arrested and prosecuted.

According to the police, Amotekun operatives are not members of the armed forces under the law and are therefore required to apply for licence before they can legally carry any kind of firearms.

Lagos, Osun and Ekiti state governments had, on Friday, said they would recruit about 1,320 operatives from the OPC and other groups for the Operation Amotekun, which was launched by the South-West states on Thursday.

Following serial killings and kidnapping in the South-West, governors in the zone had at a meeting in June decided to set up Operation Amotekun.

No fewer than 120 patrol vehicles were on Thursday made available to the security outfit.

The Police Public Relations Officer for the Ekiti State Police Command, Sunday Abutu, said any OPC member that had prohibited firearms would be arrested.

Abutu said it was the responsibility of the police to arrest and prosecute any individual or group bearing arms illegally.

The police spokesman, who said the community security outfits like the vigilantes and hunters could not carry prohibited firearms, said, “The approved local vigilante groups can only carry Dane guns.

“Even people that are going to use those ones (Dane and local guns) have to be approved by the police. The police know those ones that are prohibited and the ones that such groups can use.”

The Police Public Relations Officer in Ogun  State, Abimbola Oyeyemi, also warned that any civilian member of the Operation Amotekun found guilty of using unlicensed firearms would be arrested.

He said the command would not condone any form of possession of prohibited firearms from members of the Amotekun security operation.

According to him, anybody that does not belong to any security agency, such as the army, the police, and the customs, cannot carry AK-47 rifles.

Also, the Ondo Police Command said it was illegal for anybody to possess firearms without being licensed.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Femi Joseph, said anyone who wished to get firearms should get the licence.

He said, “There are categories of firearms.  The ones that are prohibited are those ones using cartridges. If you are carrying them without being licensed, it is illegal, but the Dane guns used by local hunters in the farm are not prohibited because they don’t use cartridges.”

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