Ooni of Ife cautions Sunday Igboho against politicians, lauds campaign against herdsmen

Abimbola Abatta, Osogbo

Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has warned popular Yoruba rights activist, Sunday Adeyemo also known as Sunday Igboho, to watch out for politicians seeking to hijack his campaign against the herdsmen menace in the South West.

Oba Adeyeye advised Igboho not to take laws into his hands but allow constituted authorities to handle the herdsmen menace.

The Ooni praised Igboho for taking on the campaign against herdsmen, saying he has done very well.

He, however, urged him to back down so that government can take over the battle to avoid politicians hijacking the movement.

The monarch said: “Let us be very objective. He (Igboho) is being a mouthpiece for the downtrodden.

“He came up and everybody is listening now, but my advice to him as a traditional ruler is that he needs to be very careful so that the politicians won’t hijack the whole motive from him.

“He has done well and we’ve already praised him but he shouldn’t take laws into his hands. We have the governor there. He is the chief security officer of the state, and Mr President has invited him. Let the right people that are being authorised to do what is right do it.

“Igboho has done well, and the world has heard him but everything should be done in moderation.

“We know that the bandits are everywhere. He shouldn’t take laws into his hands. We have laws in this country, and we should follow it. Let the right people do and follow what they are supposed to do.”

Stating that traditional rulers have a role to play, the Ooni said, “It is not as if we will now go out to criticise them. We are not politicians, we are traditional rulers; we should be respected, we should be neutral and we should accommodate all and sundry.

“Traditional rulers have a role to play. We should be very neutral and so far so good, we have been trying to be neutral. Whatever this government is doing, we always stand up to try and see how to support them.”