The South-West governors will on January 7, inaugurate Operation Amotekun, a security strategy meant to combat killings and kidnapping in the zone.
The Ekiti State Commissioner for Information, Mr Muyiwa Olumilua, who said this in an interview with newsmen on Wednesday, said vehicles and equipment for the security outfit were ready.
He stated that the inauguration was delayed by the need for all the states to be adequately ready in terms of meeting the requirements.
The governors had, in September, after a meeting in Akure, said they would set up Operation Amotekun, following serial killings and kidnapping in the zone by Fulani herdsmen.
In June, gunmen, suspected to be herdsmen, killed Funke Olakunri, a daughter of the Afenifere leader, Reuben Fasoranti, on the Ondo-Ore road.
There were cases of kidnapping, including the abduction of a lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Prof. Olayinka Adegbehingbe, in May, at the Ikoyi/Apomu junction of the Ibadan-Ife Expressway in Ikire, a border town between Osun and Oyo states.
Also, a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God and four others were kidnapped at the Ogbere area of Ogun State in August.
Leaders of some ethnic groups in Yorubaland like the Oodua Peoples Congress and Agbekoya, had, in November, said they were awaiting South-West governors to request personnel from them for the joint security outfit.
The Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Chief Gani Adams, had, had on several occasion on November 10, said, “The present stage is that the group is awaiting the response of the governors so that we can know the number of security personnel needed.”
But three months after the governors said they would start the operation, the security outfit had yet to be inaugurated despite the worsening security situation in the zone.
