The Ondo State Security Network Agency, also known as Operation Amotekun, was inaugurated on Tuesday by the state government.

A few months ago, the bill setting up the security agency was passed into law by the state House of Assembly and shortly after, it was signed into law by Governor Rotimi Akeredolu.

At the inauguration of the outfit held at the Gani Fawehimi Arcade in Akure, Akeredolu said with the Amotekun in operation, there was no more room for criminality in the state, warning criminals to stay away from the state.

No fewer than 192 members of the corps were inaugurated at the ceremony.

The governor expressed optimism that no criminal element would trouble the relative peace being enjoyed by the state as the agency had commenced operations.

He said, “It was so horrible that marauders laid siege to the highways as well as the farmlands waiting to kidnap or devour anyone in sight. With the launch of the Amotekun, we have resolved that it shall be no retreat, no surrender. We are not going to be intimidated or blackmailed.

“It is incontrovertible that the existing security framework is being overstretched and we had to devise a means of confronting the challenge of insecurity head-on. That was when the concept of Amotekun came up. As Yoruba, we are not known to surrender to our adversaries and if our forebears did not, we should not.

“On March 4, this year, just two months after the launch of Amotekun in Ibadan, the bill setting up the corps was signed into law after diligent and thorough work by the state House of Assembly. The import of this is that the Amotekun Corps is now a legal entity and not just the idea of an individual.”

The governor, however, noted that the agency was not inaugurated to pursue his second term agenda.

“I am saying it again that my ambition is not worth the insecurity that our people are confronted with, where at some point, people were afraid of travelling out of the state,” Akeredolu declared.

The Commander of the Amotekun Corps, Mr Adetunji Adeleye, said the personnel were trained in collaboration with experienced hands drawn from the various security agencies in the state