From the look of things, local hunters may have been excluded from Operation Amotekun, contrary to the initial plan of the founders.
Operation Amotekun was launched in January by the governors of the six states in the country’s Southwest – Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti states – “to ensure an end to insecurity in the South Western, Nigerian region.” It is the country’s “first regional security outfit initiated by a geopolitical zone.”
Members of the security outfit are supposed to include local hunters, the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), Agbekoya, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and vigilante groups.
But the publicised process of recruitment into the Amotekun Corps in Oyo State suggests that the state government failed to take local hunters into consideration.
The Oyo State Government has opened an online application site for those interested in joining the security outfit.
“The online form, which was uploaded on the official website of the state, indicated that the form is free and not for sale,” according to a report.
”The form contains three pages… The first page, which is for bio-data, asks among other things, for special skills or trade, security-related experiences and occupation of the applicants, while the second page asks every applicant to present medical reports on their health status, including hepatitis, random blood sugar, PCV, and vital signs.
“The medical reports, according to the form, must be obtained from Oyo State Government hospital, which must carry the signature, date and stamp of the hospital.
Also, the medical doctor that administered the tests must also sign that he has found the applicant medically fit for recruitment into the Amotekun Corps.”
”The third page of the form,” the report said, “requests two guarantors for each of the applicants, who must be their village heads and the lawmakers representing their constituencies in the Oyo State House of Assembly.
The two guarantors of each applicant must also attest that they know the applicant and that they have found him, or her suitable for selection for the corps, and they must also attest to the applicant’s conduct and character.
“They must also sign on the form that they are the ones recommending the applicant for selection and they should be held liable if the applicant is found wanting in character or other vices. The guarantors must sign and right thumbprint on the form.”
The report added: “The applicants have also been told to print out their slips after filling and submission of the forms online, and they must provide the slips during the screening exercise that would be made known to them.”
However, the Soludero Hunters Association, a group of local hunters in Oyo State, says its members will not register online to join the Amotekun Corps in the state.
The chairman of the association, Oba Nureni Ajijola-Anabi, was reported saying recruitment into the Amotekun Corps should not be based on paper qualifications.
He said: “We told them to focus more on the local people, who know the terrain, including the forests, but they told us to go and register online.
“What does online registration have to do with providing security for the people? If they insist on this, we will back out of the exercise…We are hunters; we are familiar with all forests in the zone.”
Considering how the outfit is expected to operate, it is understandable that the Soludero Hunters Association is opposed to recruitment through online registration.
This is the picture: “The operatives of the security outfit will assist police, other security agencies and traditional rulers in combating terrorism, banditry, armed robbery, kidnapping and also help in settling herdsmen and farmers contentions in the region.”
Obviously, the outfit needs people who have practical security experience, which is a more important and useful qualification than familiarity with the ways of “the digital age.”
It is the responsibility of the outfit to ensure that local hunters, for instance, are not discouraged by a burdensome recruitment process.
In particular, it is unrealistic to ask local hunters who want to join the outfit to apply online, which is alienating, considering their background. Is this a covert move to turn the security outfit into an elitist outfit?
It is said that we live in “the digital age.” But it is obvious that this does not apply to everybody. There are many people who still live in a pre-digital age, and this does not apply to local hunters alone.
The point is that the leadership of the outfit in Oyo State needs to simplify the registration process to accommodate local hunters and others like them. This also applies to the other states involved in the security operation.
Local hunters are relevant to the operation of the security outfit because, according to the Commandant of Ekiti State Security Network codenamed Amotekun, Brigadier-General Joe Komolafe (retd), “We want people that can enter the bush and give us native intelligence about criminal hideouts.”
During a tour of Ekiti West, Efon Alaaye and Ijero local government areas of the state, the Corps Commandant was reported to have “explained that the security outfit would employ ancient Yoruba tactics of securing territories and fishing out criminals from their hideouts”; and “charged traditional rulers to deploy their supernatural prowess to secure lives and properties of people in their domains.”
He observed that “the neglect of local and ancient patterns of exposing criminals was one of the factors responsible for the rising wave of crimes in the region.”
It is interesting that the security boss referred to the use of mystical powers for security purposes. This is the turf of local hunters.
They are credited with supernatural powers which they use in their adventures in the forests. This is the unique value that they are expected to bring to the security outfit.
The envisaged collaboration between local hunters, armed with ancient mystical powers, and modern security agents, represents a useful combination of forces to fight insecurity in the region.
It is noteworthy that Amotekun is a Yoruba word for Leopard. Excluding local hunters from Operation Amotekun, one way or another, is like amputating a leopard’s limb.
Such a leopard would be disabled, and cannot be expected to perform maximally.
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