Lagos State Assembly has lent its voice to the South West Security outfit, Amotekun and has fixed a public hearing on the matter for Monday 24th February, 2020.

Speaker of the House, Mudashiru Obasa committed the Bill to the House Committee on Information, Publicity, Security and Strategy for public hearing during plenary on Thursday 20th February, 2020.

The committee, headed by Tunde Braimoh was directed to report back to the House sine die (indefinitely).

The Clerk of the House, Azeez Sanni had informed the House that he received a letter from the state’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Moyosore Onigbanjo on Wednesday 19th February, 2020 on the proposed amendment to the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC) Law 2016.

Sanni was subsequently directed to read the Bill entitled a House of Assembly Bill No. 5 Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC) Amendment Bill 2020 and for Connected Purposes for the first and second times.

Majority Leader of the House, Sanai Agunbiade (Ikorodu 1) said the Bill is an executive bill, but that it is predicated on the private member bill that established LNSC, which he said has been working well.

Agunbiade said the Bill sought to incorporate the concept of a more dynamic and more strengthened security platform than what was in place in Lagos State.

“It is meant to energise and strengthen the security that we have in Lagos State based on the challenges in the state and in the South West.

“It tries to create a unit out of the LNSC to be referred to as Amotekun Corps to take charge of security in certain areas such as in the forest, highway and other places to protect us against hoodlums, cattle rustling and others.

“It will have a commander and Amotekun Corps would bear harms with the permission of the police. They will cooperate with other security platforms in Ondo, Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti and Osun States,” he said.

In his contribution, Oluyinka Ogundimu, (Agege 2), while supporting the Bill, commended the foresight of the Lagos State Assembly on the security of the state.

Mr Ogundimu stated that the law covers wider areas and made internal security a priority.

He called for local content in the bill, adding that there was need for people with native intelligence, and that whoever would be appointed as the Head of the unit should be approved by the House.

Olumuyiwa Jimoh, (Apapa 2) however observed that there was a problem of nomenclature in the Bill.

Jimoh stated that the Nigerian Police had been existence before independence and that the people had been talking about their reforms.

“The colonialists formed the Nigerian Police for us in 1930 and we have not made efforts to form our own security force.

“The population of men of the Nigerian Police is small. We should encourage men of Amotekun to be armed and to be able to arrest and prosecute.

“South Africans have their own native police that checkmate other security forces. We can have the military wing of Amotekun in Lagos,” he said.

In his view, Tunde Braimoh (Kosofe 2) said governance was about giving meaning to the yearnings and aspirations of the people.

He stressed that what the people of the South West wanted now was security.

“People keep talking about Amotekun because that is what they want now. Amotekun emanated from the House with the LNSC, which has now transformed to Amotekun. Section 14 (2B) of the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 emphasizes security. There are issues in the bill but they would be looked into later,” he said.

The matter was also supported by all the lawmakers, who spoke on the matter including Hon. Victor Akande (Ojo 1), Hon. Bisi Yusuff (Alimosho 1), Adedamola Richard Kasunmu (Ikeja 2) and Hon. David Setonji (Badagry 2).