*Advocates death penalty for kidnapping, other crimes
*Says constitutional powers for monarch best way to solve insecurity
By BASHIR ADEFAKA
In war situation you are lose your humanity and rights. These were the words of the Oluwo of Iwo, Osun State, South West Nigeria, Oba AbdulRasheed Adewale Akanbi, when he featured on TVC program Wednesday morning.
During the television discussion monitored by The DEFENDER, the no-nonsense monarch described war as a collateral disaster that no sane human being especially Nigerian should talk or think about engaging in.
Those who talk or drum the best for war should not talk of it. War? In war situation you lose everything. You lose your children, husbands, wives, in fact you lose everything and, even, food needs be dropped from the sky before you are able to eat. It now depends on whether you have the peace of the mind to eat the food, he said.
The Oluwo said in a war situation, cars don’t move on the road and you lose the freedom to move around” and therefore emphatically warned those ethnic jingoists yearning for war to retrace their steps.
On restructuring, Oba Akanbi said he did not not support it but advocated for devolution of powers to the states for easy development.
On insecurity in parts of the country, the monarch made case for tough actions in a way that suggested that rule of law is effective but not during the developing process of a nation.
Citing how America grew, he said the United States took so many tough decisions including killing where necessary and then after it became a developed country, it settled down and amended its law. He urged those in authorities in Nigeria to look in that direction saying, “you don’t use such system (rule of law)” in the process of developing a country, corroborating some analysts who have earlier earned same ground saying Nigeria is not ripe for all the human rights laws that they use to distract development process in the country.
In a separate occasion, the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba AbdulRasheed Adewale Akanbi, reportedly called for death penalty for those arrested for kidnapping and other crimes in the country.
Speaking at a farmer-herder summit held in Iwo Local Government of Osun State on Tuesday May 18, the Osun monarch also charged herders in his local government to work hand in hand with him to ensure that criminals perpetrating abductions and killings in Iwo get arrested.
Oba Akanbi said: “There must be the death penalty for kidnappers and no Human Rights advocate should kick against that. Government must begin to kill corrupt people irrespective of their ethnicity, be it Fulani Hausa, Yoruba or any tribe.
“If the security forces cannot enforce the law, then there would be anarchy, ritualists, corrupt people, kidnappers should be killed henceforth.
“I want you to work with me to identify criminals penetrating your ranks so that I would not join those who are calling for your expulsion in the Southwest.
“You would chase the criminals always by working with the chiefs, and security agencies. I still stand by my words that Fulani should come and stay in Iwo, but I don’t want criminals because we can’t identify with them.”
The Oluwo, also calling for the recruitment of more policemen and community policing, added: “Security challenges would be significantly solved if the government gives traditional rulers constitutional power. I also prefer devolution of power, not restructuring. Then we also need State Police.”
