A South South Group from Delta, the apex body of the Urhobo Nation, Urhobo Progress Union (UPU), has thrown its weight behind the government and people of South West on Amotekun, the security outfit being put together by the latter region to combat rising insecurity within the region.

In a statement from the office of the President General of UPU, Olorogun Moses Taiga, the UPU said “Amotekun is a response to the current security challenges in the South West. Amotekun is meant to help the federal government combat insecurity in the land. The baby should not be thrown away with the bath water because Amotekun is needed. Amotekun’s target are criminals, not a religious or ethnic groups. Criminality knows no ethnicity,” the UPU said.

The UPU urged the South West to “continue to dialogue with the federal government to smoothen the rough edges. The Urhobo Progress Union fully aligns with the ideals of Amotekun.” The UPU called on the South South, especially the government of Delta State, to study what the south west has done and the ongoing dialogue with the federal government so that the South South, especially Delta State, can set up a similar security outfit to support the police to combat insecurity in the region.

The UPU warned that “if the South South is not pro-active, by the time Amotekun succeeds in chasing away criminals from the South West, they will relocate to the South South and the area will become uninhabitable.”

The UPU urged the Delta State government to set up a similar security arrangement. “Many of our people, who are mainly farmers, have lost their source of livelihood due to insecurity. They can no longer go to their farmers for fear of being attacked,” the UPU said.

It would recalled that the UPU President General, Olorogun Taiga, has severally called on the federal and state government to come to the aid of the Urhobo people of Delta Central Senatorial of the illegal occupation of their lands by hoodlums and the killing, maiming of their people and raping of their women by these hoodlums. Economic activities, which is mainly farming, have grind to a halt in parts of some Urhobo clans like Uwheru and Abraka.