Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Femi Falana, has said that the Attorney General’s statement concerning Operation Amotekun is diversionary and hypocritical.
The human rights lawyer stated this while featuring as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
Falana said, “In this case, the statement credited to the Attorney General of the Federal Government is clearly diversionary and hypocritical. Hypocritical in the sense that the governments of Kano and Zamfara states have set up HISBAH Commission and just recently, the HISBAH operatives in Zamfara State arrested a police officer alleged to have been caught in the midst of three women.”
Speaking further, Falana noted that in the northeast zone, there is a civilian JTF made up of 26000 volunteers armed to assist the military in waging the counter-insurgence operations.
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Citing other examples, the rights activist stated that in Lagos state there is the neighborhood watch created by law, an organization that he argues is working and assisting the police to address security challenges in the state.
According to Falana, it is disturbing that the Attorney General of the Federal Government can say that his legal opinion was not sought, stressing that there is no constitutional nexus between the Attorney General of the Federal Government and the state governments in that each state of the Federal Republic has its own Attorney General.
He argued that to talk of the Attorney General of the Federation is a misnomer, a carry-over from the military era. Falana explained that Mr. Malami is the Attorney General of the Federal Government in Abuja while other states have their own Attorney Generals to advise the government.
Having said this, the Senior Advocate surmised that the AGF has no power to proscribe any organisation in Nigeria.
