Amotekun parading Fulani women like criminals — ACF warns this is dangerous

The Arewa Consultative Forum has called out the Ondo State Security Network Agency, Amotekun, over a viral video showing their operatives arresting and publicly parading some Hausa and Fulani women in the state. Alhaji Bashir M. Dalhatu, the chairman of the ACF Board of Trustees, issued a statement yesterday condemning what he described as unconstitutional and discriminatory treatment of citizens based on ethnicity.

Now, I have always supported the idea of state security outfits because our federal police are clearly overwhelmed. But when an agency starts treating fellow Nigerians as strangers in their own country, we have a problem. The ACF quoted the Nigerian Constitution correctly — no government agency has the right to deport citizens from one state to another. These women were reportedly going about their lawful business before they were humiliated publicly.

Let us be honest with ourselves. If this kind of profiling continues, how long before every ethnic group starts forming vigilante groups to protect their own people from state-sponsored harassment? The ACF warned that entire communities cannot be criminalised because of a few bad actors, and they are right. The Ondo State Government must investigate this matter and sanction any official found culpable. Am I the only one that sees this as a direct threat to our national unity?