In what appears as a summon, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi II, was again at the Presidential Villa on Friday, but this time met with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
The meeting is the second in two days which may not be unconnected with his earlier comments over growing insecurity in Nigeria.
It was not immediately clear why he had to meet with the Vice President, the traditional ruler had on Thursday, after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari told journalists that “the drums of war was sounding across the nation”.
Although the closed door meeting with the Vice President lasted for about 45 minutes, he however declined comments on reasons for his second visit to the Presidential Villa.
There were however insinuations that he may have been summoned over the statements credited to him in the media as he simply smiled and waved at State House Correspondents who had wanted to know his mission.
Unlike the Thursday visit which took him to the President, the revered traditional ruler only stopped at the Vice President’s wing
The Ooni while speaking with State House correspondents on Thursday after meeting Buhari noted that the drums of war are sounding loud across the country.
He said he was at the Presidential Villa to speak to President Buhari on behalf o South West traditional rulers towards improving security situation in the country.
The royal father also warned politicians in the country not to encourage anarchy by blowing issues out of proportion.
According to the traditional ruler, “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 drums of war, we don’t want war, who can’t 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 blow 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.” he said
Oba Ogunlusi II pointed out that everything must be done to put all security agencies to good use as well as work with the locals to separate the bad eggs.
His words: “We shouldn’t keep over hyping war and we still want to keep the peace in the south west. We don’t want anarchy.” he said
The Ooni had also asked the President to search and fish out the perpetrators of the various crimes , including kidnapping, armed robbery and other forms of attacks going on across the country
