Innocent Oweh, Gbenga Abegunrin
Abuja / Ibadan – Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, stormed the Presidential Villa on Thursday, where he intimated President Muhammadu Buhari that issue of insecurity bedeviling the country was vibrating war drums.
The revered monarch, however, said people of the South-West extraction were not ready for war as the experience will not be palatable for anyone.
His visit to the presidency was connected to the killing of the daughter of the Afenifere leader, Pa Rueben Fasoranti, by suspected Fulani herdsmen in Ondo State recently, which prompted diverse reactions from Nigerians, including ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, among others.
Although the meeting held behind closed doors, the Ooni bared his mind to State House correspondents shortly after he met the president.
The royal father disclosed that his visit was on the instance of all traditional rulers in the South West, noting that they were equally equipped with ideas on how to improve the security situation in the country.
He said, “How to improve security. I came to speak on behalf of other traditional rulers. The issue at hand in the South West is real. The issue of insecurity, we that live in the remote and rural areas of the South Western part of the country, most of the bushes are occupied by strange people and we decided to work with the government to fish them out.
“Everybody is beating the drum of war, we don’t want war, who can stand war, we want something better for our youths.
“We should better use them for something good other than shouting war and anarchy. We don’t want that.
“We told the president that and he is on the same page with us. Politicians should be careful not to take things out of proportion.
“We should make sure things are right. Mr. President has actually given good directives to security chiefs especially the IGP. They will visit each and every traditional ruler’s palaces that are very sensitive in South West with immediate effect, he is going to give that directives.
“We need to work very closely with the youths and every other security agencies in the country, we will put them to good use now, it is very important to us to put them to use and work with the locals, it is very important so that we can separate the corn from the chaff”.
The Ooni also took a swipe on political leaders, accusing them of over hyping security situation in the country.
According to him, the Yoruba nation abhors any form of attrition or anarchy.
“We shouldn’t keep over hyping it by saying what is next is war, no. We know what Mr. President has been saying about South-Western part of the country for a long time, the peace and peaceful co-existence in the South-West, we still want to keep that, we don’t want any war to happen, we don’t want any attrition, we don’t want any anarchy. So that is the reason why I came to discuss with him,” he told State House correspondents.
He revealed that President Buhari promised to give a true version of the Ruga policy at the appropriate time, noting that according to the president, the public misconstrued the true intentions of the proposed Ruga settlements.
“One other thing the president assured me of, before I left, which I will go and give back to much more experienced traditional rulers in the South-West and our leaders across board is that he has assured that he will say his own side of the story about Ruga.
“He wants to let the world and Nigerians in particular know the true side of the story because it’s being read out of context. So we should give him that opportunity to speak on his behalf as the number one citizen of the country.
“What is important for me is the youthful exuberance nature of our youths in Nigeria for them not to take laws into their hands, go into all those places and start to kill and maim, we don’t want that, the drums of war is resonating too much and we are very worried,” he stated.
When asked by reporters to explain what he meant recently that the South-Westerners should defend themselves, he said, “I mentioned to you that it is real, that we have wrong people in our midst, so when we have wrong people in our midst how are we not going to defend ourselves, that is why I came here, that in terms of defending ourselves, we need more Federal Government apparatus to defend ourselves because we don’t want to be defenceless.
“It is very important. It is about the mission of defending ourselves that I am here, we need reinforcement from Federal Government and I just mentioned to you that the president has said he will give directives to the IGP to go and see every nooks and crannies of our traditional institutions in South-West and that would probably extend across the entire country because he mentioned to me that he worked in North-East and North-Central discussing and working with the traditional institutions.
“So for us to defend ourselves is for me to come here to meet Mr. President for us to have reinforcement.
“We understand our territory more than anybody. We understand our territory very well. What is important is that everybody in the South-West right now, we are all on the same page. We don’t want war and we want to work with government to defend our land”.
Also asked to comment on alleged stigmatisation of the Fulanis across the whole country, he said, “Well it is not about stigmatisation, it is about separating the corn from the chaff. A lot of them are mixed up with the good ones.
“We are not saying all Fulanis are bad, it’s not only about the Fulanis, it’s not only about them, it’s about the bad miscreants that are even hiding under the name of Fulanis. We want to try as much as possible to work with the government right now. They have all the security apparatus, they are meant to defend us, that is what we are looking out for now. We have to stand up and meet with Mr. President and he has given us a listening ear and you will see a lot of result going forward”.
OPC Gives Police 21 Days To Fish Out Killers Of Fasoranti’s Daughter
Meanwhile, the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) New Era has issued a 21-day ultimatum to the Nigerian police and other security agencies in the country to fish out the killers of Funke Olakunrin, daughter of Afenifere leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti.
The OPC, in a statement by its National Public Relations Officer, Comrade Adeshina Akinpelu, stated that if after the 21-day ultimatum, the police was unable to fish out the killers of Funke Olakunrin, the Yoruba self-determination group would embark on an operation to drive out all criminal herdsmen and their Yoruba accomplices away from the South-West.
Part of the statement reads: “Time has come for us to act now. We will no longer fold our hands and allow criminal Fulani herdsmen to continue to kill us like cows.
“We can’t continue to use the blood of our people to keep Nigeria’s unity.
“We are giving the police and other security agencies 21-day ultimatum to fish out the killers of Funke Olakunrin.
“Failure to fish out the killers, we will drive out all criminal Fulani herdsmen, Yoruba accomplices, and other tribes perpetrating crimes in Yoruba land.”
The OPC also condemned the recent call by Miyetti Allah for the arrest of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, describing such statement as reckless.
“We are not in any way surprised by Miyetti Allah’s call for the arrest of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Why would they not call for the arrest of Chief Obasanjo when they have a great supporter in the person of President Muhammadu Buhar?” The group said.
The group also called on governors, elected political office holders, and Yoruba leaders to come together and tackle the issue of insecurity in Yoruba land, saying the OPC and over one hundred other pressure groups in Yoruba land were prepared to tackle the issue in the South-West.
The post Rising Insecurity: War Drums Sounding Everywhere, Ooni Tells Buhari appeared first on Independent Newspapers Nigeria.
Source: Independent
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