The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi while speaking with newsmen in Abuja has said the government should enhance the security of the nation as no one wants war.
He said this after a meeting he had with President Buhari in Abuja.
The Ooni said, “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.”
The Ooni said his meeting with the president was to have a discussion on how to improve security in the light of the many recent unpleasant incidents that had been happening. He said no one was trying to stigmatize the Fulani but those committing evil deeds had to be finished from the good ones.
He said, “It is not about stigmatization; it is about separating the wheat from the chaff.
“A lot of them are mixed up with the good ones. We are not saying all the Fulani are bad. It is not only about the Fulani, it is not only about them; it is about the bad miscreants that are even hiding under the name of the Fulani.
The Ooni added that “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.”
“We want to try as much as possible to work with the government right now. They have all the security apparatus and they are meant to defend us; that is what we are looking up to 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.”
“We should make sure things are right and the President has given good directives to security chiefs including the Inspector-General of Police to visit all traditional institutions in the South-West.”
The monarch canvassed efficient policing and intelligence gathering that involved using the locals to help fish out strange elements in the various communities.
Oba Adewusi further stressed that “We shouldn’t keep over-hyping war and we still want to keep the peace in the South-West. We don’t want anarchy.”
“What is important is for the youth not to take the law into their own hands, killing and causing violence. The drum of war is resonating loud and we are very worried.
“We need more federal apparatus to defend ourselves. We need security reinforcement from the Federal Government. We understand more than anybody. We don’t want war and we want to work with government to bring peace.
“We are not saying all Fulani are bad; it is about the bad guys working under the name of the Fulani,”
