Former military President, Ibrahim Babangida, has shared his view on Operation Amotekun recently launched by the South-West governors, stating that the move is not a viable one.

Amotekun was set up by the governors to combat the security menace in the region.
He highlighted some of the challenges facing the states and the need for the governors to adopt a more sustainable approach in addressing the security challenges.

Speaking on Channels Television Newsnight, Mr. Babaginda the governors should have convinced the Federal Government to put up some part of the revenue for the purpose of curbing insecurity in the region.

“It is not viable because they are quarreling with minimum pay, now they create another force that you must equip them, pay them salaries, and give them all the needed welfare, which is going to be a problem for the state, where will they get the money to do that.

“If they had succeeded in convincing the Federal Government to put up some part of the revenue for the purposes of that, but if they take on it themselves, it is going to be a problem.

“I think what they need to do is to have a closer look at this; we have a lot of security outfits, and I think it is to assign specific responsibilities. That will take away the burden, they wouldn’t be stretched,” he stated.

Mr. Babaginda maintained that a lot needs to be done to address the security situation while recommending that an intelligence-driven approach should be adopted.

“A lot needs to be done quite frankly because if what we read in the papers or what we listen to on the radio is true, there are still some challenges in most of these areas we assumed the security situation has been stabilised.

“There are still a lot of challenges, what they need to do is to get a lot of intelligence information. It looks to me that there are some people who are thinking for the insurgents and the thinking is we need to find out who is thinking for them, who are leading them, supplying them the weapons and ammunition and we need to put a stop to that.”

Regionally, Mr. Babaginda said he would love to see more commitments at the highest levels from the Heads of states of various countries’ commitments to security.