The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has called on monarchs in Yoruba land to deploy traditional means including black magic in the fight against insecurity.
The region is experiencing its own share of epidemic of kidnapping sweeping through the nation.
Oba Ogunwusi made the charge to the monarchs to use a bouquet of traditions, customs and technology to arrest the menace while speaking at the maiden edition of Yoruba Security Summit.
The latter is also prompted by the killings of royal fathers in Ekiti and Kwara states with a communique signed by Ooni and issued to the media recounting what he said at the occasion.
The communique reads in part, “Yoruba people should take full control of their forests, homelands and farmlands.
“Amotekun Corps should be strengthened in terms of; motivation, finances, training and retraining of personnel and that those who are familiar with nooks and crannies of our forests should be recruited into the Amotekun Corps.
“Provision of training grounds for its personnel.
“Provision of modern, state-of-the-art weapons to tackle insecurity as security is local.
“Provision of adequate budgetary allocations to the Amotekun Corps.
“The Yoruba, especially traditional rulers, should make recourse to their natural resources, including natural powers, to combat banditry and kidnapping; that Yoruba Obas should not jettison traditional values.
“Government at all levels should recognise the roles of traditional rulers and factor them into the national security architecture.
“The entire Obas in Yorubaland should work in unison to ward off the evils of banditry and kidnappings, as each of the states can only succeed in chasing the marauders to another state.
“Any Oba who is disinterested in Yoruba culture and custom should abdicate his throne for anyone who is deeply versed and interested in Yoruba traditions.
“The judicial process should be strengthened to mete out appropriate punishments to culprits or bring them to justice.
“Southwest governors should organise Regional Security Summit at the earliest practicable time, including all stakeholders to chart the way forward and give teeth to all the concerns raised at this summit.
“The security summit calls for strong support for the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the larger interest of Yoruba race.
“The security summit calls on Yoruba traditional rulers to return to the pristine Yoruba traditional, spiritual and cultural values. At all times, the traditional rulers should recognise that, in spite of whatever nature of religion they practise, they must recognise that the stool they preside over is traditional.
“The summit calls on Yoruba traditional rulers to take full possession of their forests, homelands and farmlands.
“The summit calls on local, state and federal governments to employ use of drones and other appropriate technology for the effective surveillance of Yoruba forests and roads.
“The summit agrees that the Yoruba security summit should be held on a quarterly basis so as to capture intervening and supervising variables in our polity.”
