By Baron Ike
The Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunlesi, Ojaja II on Thursday met with President Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Rock where he told the President that the Yoruba of the South West want peace and not war and would be prepared to work with the federal government to achieve the peace they need.
Ooni’s visit was sequel to the increasing insecurity in the country, and the fear of war and anarchy it has generated across the country.
The Ooni who said he went to speak with Buhari on behalf of the monarchs from the South West reiterate that the region does not want war but rather, ready to collaborate with the government to salvage the situation.
Fielding questions from newsmen after the meeting the Ooni said: “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 am 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 throw things out of proportion.
“We should make sure things are right and the President has given good directives to security chiefs including the IG to visit all traditional institutions in the south west. 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 youths not to take laws into their hands, killing and causing violence. The drums of war is resonating loud and we are very worried. We need more federal apparatus to defend ourselves. Reinforcement from 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 Fulanis are bad, it’s about the bad guys working under the name of Fulanis.”
The Ooni added that Buhari told him that the RUGA programme was taken out of context, and that he said he was doing much to ensure that Nigerians are secure no matter where they reside.