A Former Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Sen. Gbenga Kaka, has said no sane individual will kick against the Western Nigeria Security Network, codenamed Amotekun.
Kaka disclosed this in an exclusive interview with DAILY POST in Abeokuta on Thursday.
The former Senator said governors of the South West states have done the right thing in seeking to protect lives and property in the region.
Kaka disclosed that the constitution guaranteed all tiers of government and individuals the right to protect themselves.
He added that with or without the support of the police, Amotekun would function well, saying the Yorubas used to have their security architecture before the advent of formal police.
He opined that the police should see Amotekun as a helping hand, advising the Federal Government to provide marching grants for the security outfit.
“I don’t know of any sane individual who will say that when one is being put under danger, then he should just fold his hands and not find a way of getting succour for him or herself.
“The issue of security is not limited to armed banditry. The insecurity that we have in the country centres around armed banditry, kidnapping, food insecurity – because a hungry man is an angry man. It also centres around water insecurity; even there is insecurity on the roads. People are incurring unnecessary expenses there, their lives are put in danger of sudden death, of unnecessary wasting of money in repairing their cars. There’s even educational insecurity because the greater threat to human life is ignorance.
“So, if the constitution guarantees all tiers of government to provide all these security issues and there are lacunas in it, it is only normal for individuals, group of individuals, corporate bodies and all others to find a way of coming together individually or collectively to find a solution around it so that they can live happily.
“If you look at it, in advanced countries, they don’t bother to build fences; and when you look at our situation in Nigeria today, the cost of building fences is even more than the cost of the main building; and the implication of that is, we will continue to say we have shortage deficit of housing. Some people are sleeping under the bridges and yet we are wasting money constructing individual prisons for ourselves in our own house because we are not feeling secured.
“So, if I now decide to build a giant fence and put barbed wire to secure myself and I still have somebody as a security guard to protect myself, who is that person saying that is illegal? It can never be illegal. It is the basic provision of the constitution that lives and properties must be protected; not by government alone but even your neighbour. So if the government is failing, the neighbour is failing, you must at all cost, with the last pint of blood in you, defend yourself. So nobody can tell me not to defend myself or I should hold my child for dog to come and bite.
“As a responsible father, I won’t fold my hands and watch any dog, whether mad or not mad, to bite my neighbour, how should we now allow any armed bandits, no matter their support base, to come and traumatize our people. Amotekun, in a nutshell is a welcome development,” Kaka told DAILY POST.
Speaking about Ogun State, the former Deputy Governor said the people of the state were becoming lazy, adding “we need to go back to the drawing board to know where we got it wrong.”
