Following the appointment of Amitolu Shittu as the Osun State Director General of Amotekun, a regional security outfit, the main opposition party in the state, People’s Democratic Party has approached the Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo on Wednesday in a bid to declare the appointment as illegal, null and void because it was alien to the Amotekun law of the state.
This was contained in the originating summons suit marked FHC/OS/CS/30/2020 which was sponsored by a group within the opposition party and its claimants are the PDP, the acting chairman of the party, Elder Sunday Akanfe Atidade.
Other individuals and agencies attached to the suit are the Governor of Osun state, Gboyega Oyetola, Amitolu Sheriff (DG of Amotekun, Osun), Osun State House of Assembly, the Nigeria Police, the Nigeria Army, Navy and Airforce, the Nigeria Civil Defence, Customs, Immigration and others.
The claimants premised their claim on the fact that the provisions of Osun Amotekun law have been brazenly and flagrantly violated with the purported appointment of Amitolu Shittu who is not a person knowledgeable, trained or skilled in security matters.
It is the claim of the claimants that the purported appointment, apart from being strange to the law establishing Amotekun, the confirmation of the State House of Assembly as required by the law was not sought and the relevant organs that make up the Amotekun Security Outfit have not been inaugurated as stipulated in the law.
The Claimants are therefore seeking certain reliefs of sack of Amitolu Shittu, declaration and injunction restraining Amitolu Shittu from parading himself as the Director-General of Amotekun, injunction restraining the Osun House of Assembly and all Federal Security agencies, Military and Para-military agencies from recognising or further recognising Amitolu Shittu and Osun Amotekun.
Recall that the Osun PDP earlier on 30th April, 2020 served a pre-action notice on the State Government and the Amotekun Agency through the office of the Attorney-General of Osun State demanding a reversal of Amitolu’s purported appointment, threatening a legal action.
It is crystal clear that Oyetola is hell-bent on soiling the integrity of the Amotekun Agency, a South-West Security Network Agency, by appointing a self-acclaimed and self-confessed political and partisan Comrade who is not trained or skilled in security matters to head the Amotekun Agency, in a clandestine style and with the alterior motive to use Amitolu and the Amotekun Agency to oppress, suppress and harass innocent citizens in furtherance of his desperate second term pursuit.
The Osun PDP has therefore made good her resolve to deliver the suffering masses of Osun from the hands of oppressors who are disguising as if they care for the security and lives of citizens.
As the legal battle kick-starts, it is the hope of the PDP that the abuse and insult brought on the common intelligence and collective resources of Osun people by Oyetola will disappear in no distant time.