Herdsmen: S’East may revive Bakassi Boys’ if S’West unveils Amotekun on Jan. 9th
Strong indications have suggested that South East leaders’ of thought and even governors are on the verge of resuscitating the dreaded Bakassi Boys’ which was hitherto the region’s crack security outfit that flushed out criminals during the late 1990s .
Business Hilights recalls that Bakassi Boys was famous for using traditional powers in deciphering ritualists, armed robbers, killers and criminals in communities who had at one time or the other, committed murder or atrocities by placing a powered machete on the skin of any arrested suspect.
During the reign of Bakassi Boys’, when the placed machete turns red in colour on any suspect, he or she is as good as gone as that is adjudged a spiritual confirmation of wrongdoing and guilt.
The plot to revive Bakassi Boys across the five South East state is stemming from the planned launch of a related security outfit by the six South West Governors tomorrow, January 9, 2020.
Otherwise, all is set for the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN) known as ‘Amotekun’ to flag off surveillance operations in all the six States of Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo.
Whereas the presidency or the IGP is yet to make any sort of official remark on the clearly strange regional security plan, many public affairs analysts see the move as tactical way of giving a fail mark on the current national security architecture realities and happenstances.
Though the rattling menace of Fulani herdsmen within several highways and forest communities in the region was kept silent in the build up to the ‘Amotekun’ security outfit, observers say the narrative of the Yoruba States’ Joint Police Force that the scheme is just to protect the region from kidnapping and other forms of crime may after all, be a cover up.
It would be recalled that Amotekun’, the joint security outfit was conceived in July 2019 at the height of serious security challenge in the region. But its commencement was delayed due to hitches in the recruitment of personnel and the need to review operation guidelines.
Tagged: ‘Operation Amotekun’, the outfit is a product of the security summit organised by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission on behalf of the six governors in June, 2019.
