From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Governor ‘Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has begun the process of repositioning the Amotekun Corps, the state’s security network agency, with a view to improving the intelligence gathering and investigative skills of its personnel in order to effectively prevent crime.
He made the disclosure on Tuesday when he declared open a three-day training workshop to hone the skills of Amotekun Corps the headquarters of the security agency at Moniya, Ibadan.
Makinde, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Otunba Segun Ogunwuyi,
emphasised the importance of intelligence in stopping crimes before they are committed, adding that the training would equip the Amotekun Corps with the tools to gather and analyse information effectively, towards enabling them to intercept criminals and prevent crimes proactively.
The workshop, which was attended by participants from all the 33 local government areas of the state, brought in experts with experience in local security intelligence in Nigeria and abroad.
The governor said his administration has been able to show to the world that with good leadership, the state has been able to prove to the whole world that “it is possible for the conventional Police, DSS and others to work with our own home-grown Amotekun Corps.”
Makinde said: “Obviously, we have experts here and I am only here to declare the workshop open. Security intelligence gathering is an act of collecting, standardising and analysing data. It is a great tool in crime prevention as it enables crimes to be nipped in the bud, even before they are committed.
“It is important to apply intelligence gathering to the conventional method of fighting crime. If we just go about with guns and cutlasses and say we are fighting crime, I am sorry, we have not done anything. If we put our minds to gathering intelligence, a lot of crimes will not even be committed in the first place.
“So, that is why it is good for us to be at this workshop, hear from the experts, and take that knowledge back home. I want to wish you well and enjoin you all to use the opportunity this three-day workshop will offer and utilise it to make our dear state safer.
“The participants were selected from the 33 local government areas, which means we want safety across the board in the state. So, with the training, we expected them to go back home and become trainers of other Amotekun Corps.”
The Commandant of Oyo State Amotekun, Col. Olayinka Olayanju (retd), urged the participants to apply the knowledge that would be gained during th training to enhance their operational efficiency and effectiveness in crime prevention.
His words: “If you have observed, we started a series of training last month, which was aimed at empowering the capacity of our men for operational efficiency. We started with how to engage with the community and time analysis. And for you to be able to effectively perform those roles, we consider it to be very important to enhance the capacity of our men in intelligence gathering.
“Apart from the fact that the governor happens to be our father, during his inauguration speech to usher in Omituntun 2.0 (second term), he specifically mentioned that he would do all within his power to enhance the capacity of all the security agencies, Amotekun in particular.
“I can tell you that most of the people you are seeing here have operated outside the country because the concept of Amotekun is purely local – because you know the people, understand their verbal and non-verbal language. That was why we decided to bring in these people, who are versed in this area.”
Fielding questions from newsmen after the official opening of the workshop, Olayanju said: “I expect that, after this training, when they hear there are cases of kidnapping in a particular area, they should be able to go out there, sieve and process such information and come out with an intelligence, which would be used to plan how to intercept the kidnappers.
“Another importance of what we are doing is, we do not, in most cases, want to be reactive. We don’t want crime to take place before we take action. They will now know that it is cost-effective for them to prevent crime. And the only way they can do that is to be able to detect the crime before it takes place.”