Governors of the six Southwest states will meet with police chiefs on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s inauguration of Amotekun, the region’s security outfit.
Operation Amotekun is primed to curb armed banditry, kidnapping for ransom and other forms of criminality.
The meeting is scheduled for Ibadan where the security outfit will be unveiled, The Nation learnt last night.
It was also gathered, that all the equipment, including operational vehicles, motorcycles and communication gadgets would have been moved from the states to Ibadan before the meeting that will be presided over by Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, who is chairman of Southwest Governors’ Forum.
The Ondo state governor is expected back from a trip abroad before the meeting.
Expected at the meeting are Governors Seyi Makinde (Oyo); Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti); Adegboyega Oyetola (Osun); Dapo Abiodun (Ogun) and Babjide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos).
The meeting is to allow the governors and the police chiefs to finalise how the outfit will operate for proper understanding before the launch.
The Nation learnt that the governors were in constant communication in the last 10 days to firm up the role which conventional and unconventional security personnel will play in Amotekun.
Commissioners of police in the region will meet under the coordination of the Assistant-Inspectors General (AIGs) in the region before the meeting with the governors.
The senior police offices are to finalise talks on the role that the police will play.
Amotekun is the outcome of a security summit organised by the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission in Ibadan the Oyo State capital in July last year.
It will have local hunters, vigilance groups and Oodua People’s Congress as members, who are to work with traditional rulers and conventional security agencies such as the police, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Army.
Each state has contributed 20 vans, fitted with communication equipment to the regional operation.
The regional team will work with those local (state) branches to ensure that criminals no longer find a safe haven in another state when they escape from one.
It was learnt that the states have recruited many of the unconventional security personnel.
