Traditional rulers in Yoruba land on Thursday called on all South West governors to equip the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN) codenamed Operation Amotekun corps with modern, state-of-the-art weapons to tackle insecurity as security is local.
They made the call at a day Yoruba Security Summit hosted by Ooni Of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi.
The monarchs charged Yoruba people to take full control of their forests, homelands and farmlands.
In a communique issued at the end of the Security Summit demanded that the governors in South West region should provide training grounds for Amotekun personnel and recruited those who familiar with nooks and crannies of Yoruba forests
They charged government at all levels to recognize the roles of traditional rulers and factor into the national security architecture.
According to communique, “The Amotekun corps should be strengthened in terms of; Motivation, finances, training and retraining of personnels and that those who are familiar with nooks and crannies of our forests should be recruited into the Amotekun. 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 the 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.
“The entire Obas in Yorubaland should work in unison to ward off the evils of banditry and kidnappings as each of the states could 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.
“Each time an attack took place, the offenders were quickly left off the hook by the powers that be and that the judicial process should be strengthened to mete out appropriate punishments to culprits or bring them to justice.
“The Governors of South West Nigeria should organize 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 (current) summit.
“The security summit called for strong support for the administration of President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the larger interest of Yoruba race.
“The security summit called on Yoruba Traditional rulers to return to the pristine Yoruba traditional, spiritual and cultural values.
“At all times, the traditional rulers should recognize that, in spite of whatever nature of religion they practice, they must recognize that the stool they preside over is traditional.
“The summit called on Yoruba traditional rulers to take full possession of their forests, homelands and farmlands.
“The summit called 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 agreed that the Yoruba security summit should be held quarterly basis so as to capture intervening and supervising variables in our polity.
