Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has dismissed the trenchant criticisms trailing few instances of human errors in the operations of the South-West Amotekun security outfit.

The rights group which argued that the few human errors are mere teething institutional problems that will be resolved with better strategic fine-tuning of training and improvement of manpower capacities of Amotekun security platform, urged massive support for the outfit because it is better to have home-grown institutional mechanism to protect lives and property than to permit the hitherto uncontrollable rampage and killing of citizens living in the region by the rampaging bunch of determined armed herdsmen whose origin are mired in politics and deceit.

Moreover, the rights group said the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), had stated that his office couldn’t prosecute armed Fulani herdsmen because, according to him, there is no case file against them.

In a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Affairs Director, Ms Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA said those at the forefront of irrational criticisms of Amotekun because of the few but avoidable human errors, are suffering from “intentionally deceitful amnesia” because if they think deeply how the South West came under incessant massive attacks and violence by suspected armed Fulani herdsmen they would have seen that the errors were the less of the two evils.

Besides, the rights group backed the order made by the Ondo State, Governor Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), on armed herdsmen to quit South-West forests, and said it expected the rest of the country such as South-East, North-East, North-Central and South-South to embrace the example set by the South-West by replicating similar law-based institutional body to protect the lives and property of their people to complement the efforts of the regular police institution.

“We also do expect that with better training, retraining and a purified system of recruitment, Amotekun will become a shining example on how the state legislature working in partnership with the governors should protect the lives of their people.”

HURIWA affirmed its support for Amotekun, adding that it is better than allowing armed Fulani herdsmen to continue to carry out genocide and be left to operate by the Nigerian police which has so far failed to prosecute a single of those armed Fulani herdsmen responsible for the killing of over 6,000 farmers all over the country in the last five years.

It said: “Those now raising their compromised voices against Amotekun, are they saying they are happy with the constant spilling of blood of the innocent attributed to armed non state actors and particularly the armed Fulani herdsmen?”

The rights group said the South western state’s legislature were right to pass the law setting up the Amotekun security outfit in their states because it is in total compliance with Section 4 (7) of the constitution.

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