Herdsmen under auspices of Miyetti Allah has said the south west region stands the risk of losing out on the 2023 presidency governors continue their push for the retention of “Amotekun”, a regional security outfit.

Speaking in an interview with THE PUNCH, national secretary of the group, Alhassan Saleh said the initiative is not the solution to the insecurity and criminality bedeviling the region

Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation, had declared the security outfit as “illegal” but Rotimi Akeredolu, governor of Ondo state, insisted that the region would go ahead with the initiative.

He advised the south-west to give up the idea of running the security outfit as it could affect the region’s chances of producing the next president.

“This Amotekun scheme is political and is not the solution to the problem of insecurity, ” he said.

“What the south-west governors should have done is to continue to push for state police. Where did they expect to get the funding from at a time some of them are struggling to pay salaries?

“It is best they give up on this idea because it may affect the chances of the south-west to produce the president in 2023.

“The thinking is that if the south-west, a major stakeholder in this government, can be toying with this idea now, they may do worse when they get to power.”

Saleh said his group agreed with the AGF that the outfit is illegal. He said he was unhappy that the AGF waited for the planning to reach an advanced stage before speaking out against it.

“We are in agreement with the AGF that Amotekun is illegal. In fact, we are unhappy that it took the AGF this long to react,” he said.