OPC accuses Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria of trying to infiltrate Amotekun

REGIONAL body the Oodua People's Congress (OPC) has warned that the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (Macban) is planning to slip its members into the southwestern regional security output Amotekun with a view to undermining it.

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.

Earlier last year, the state houses of assemblies in the six states of the southwest geo-political zone passed by-laws making Amotekun a legal and constitutional entity.  Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic derailed the process but now, the state governors are stepping up the formation of Amotekun corps in their states.

According to the OPC, Macban is planning to infiltrate Amotekun in a bid to weaken the outfit and create a perpetual security threat across southwest Nigeria. OPC publicity secretary Yinka Oguntimehin, warned Macban to drop the idea.

Mr Oguntimehin said: “OPC will never allow Miyetti Allah to set our region on fire. We cannot afford to see the southwest facing the kind of security challenges faced daily in the northeast and northwest.

“Our group will never fold its arms and allow us to be overrun by herdsmen and marauders. That is why we are warning leaders of the group to desist from their sinister motives and leave Amotekun alone in the region.”

He lambasted the leader of herders in Oyo State, Mallam Ibrahim Jiji for making the unrealistic request that his members be allowed to join Amotekun, maintaining that Macban lacked credibility. He urged the federal government to beam a searchlight on Mallam Jiji, noting that no Yoruba group ever demanded to be included into northern formations like Hisbah or any of the Middle Belt security outfits.