47,000 applicants show up for 2,000 Amotekun positions in Oyo State as recruitment begins

RECRUITMENT officials in Oyo State have been inundated with applicants as they seek to find staff for the recently-created Amotekun Corps as 47,000 applicants turned up to fill 2,000 positions at the screening exercise in Ibadan.

Over recent years, heavily-armed herdsmen have been running riot across Nigeria, engaging in kidnapping, armed robbery and banditry. To address the problem, the governors from across the southwest geo-political zone decided to launch a regional security outfit named Amotekun, which translates to leopard in the local Yoruba language.

Backing up their plans with an official launch in Ibadan, the six governors have supplied Operation Amotekun with vehicles and equipment. Now, recruitment has begun, with the Oyo State chapter commencing the screening and verification exercise in Ibadan yesterday.

General Kunle Togun, the chairman of the Oyo State Security Network Agency, said that a background check on criminal records of the applicants will also be done. He  added: “Over 47,000 persons applied, while we are to take 2,000 for now.

"Graduates, school certificate holders and those that do not have any educational background applied. We asked them questions on what operations they had done in the past as we want to know if they are experienced and active and what role they played in their various groups."

"We’ll also check to know if they have had criminal records. Some gave incoherent information about where they came from and some did not give facts about the local government areas they claim to hail from.”