Immediate past Chairman of the All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State, Chief Jide Awe, said on Saturday that the South-West region would produce the country’s next president under the banner of the party in 2023.
Awe said that the governors of the South-West states should have been praised by the Federal Government on the Operation Amotekun initiative, rather than the treatment they got through the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.
Awe spoke in an interview in Ado Ekiti against the backdrop of a statement by Miyetti Allah’s Kautal Hore that Operation Amotekun might cost South-West the presidency in 2023.
He said, “They said they won’t give us Presidency in 2023 if the governors insist on protecting their people. Well, the position is not being allocated by the group saying that. Again, let them know that the Yoruba are destined for Presidency in 2023 because we have paid our dues as far as the APC is concerned.”
The APC chieftain, who said the inability of the conventional security outfits to secure the people’s lives signposted that Nigeria was a failed state, added, “Anything that has to do with security does not carry the toga of politics, so it will be a great disservice to our people to politicise the issues surrounding the formation and proscription of Amotekun.
Awe said, “For the AGF to have complete work, let him tell Nigerians that hiring of the private guard is illegal. Let him tell us that fencing a building or purchase of generating sets are also illegal as well.
“Let him know that as big men exist and protected by army, police, and others, we at the lowest rung of the ladder must be allowed to live our lives, we too must be protected and Amotekun is for this purpose because the Federal Government has failed us.
“I salute our governors for this joint security. I am still at a loss with the claim by the Federal Government that Amotekun was illegal. People were being kidnapped, robbed, killed and traumatised on a daily basis and the Federal Government did nothing. Do they want our governors to watch as their people were being killed?
“I had been a victim of kidnapping because my brother was abducted by strange people here in Ekiti. We had to look for the money we didn’t have to pay the ransom before he was released. Should we fold our arms and allow this to continue?
“I am a farmer and I knew what it takes to keep your farm. Several millions of farms had been destroyed in Orin Ekiti, Oke Ako and other towns in the Ekiti axis, also in Ijare in Ondo and Ibarapa area in Oyo. All these wicked acts must stop and that was what the Amotekun issue was about.”
