Sylvester Idowu in Warri
The Paramount Ruler of Idjerhe Kingdom in Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State, HRM Monday Arthur Obukohwo, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to as a matter of urgency tackle the problems of insecurity and biting economic hardship bedeviling the country in order to avert national crisis.
The journalist turned monarch in an interview with journalists yesterday, also tasked the president to direct all oil multinationals operating in the Niger Delta to relocate to the region without delay.
According to him, “Insecurity is already assuming a dangerous dimension that royal fathers have been abducted and murdered. We have now left the stage of bandit going to harass people, kill people in their farmland to royal fathers driving on federal government highways and then kidnapped by bandits.
“I’m strongly believing that they are doing this to provoke national chaos, to provoke national reactions, to provoke ethnic reactions. Because you can wake up and they invade a region of this country and senselessly begin to kill the people.”
King Obukohwo stated further that: “The royal institutions all over the world is a sacred institution. So I strongly believe that it’s time for the government to attack insecurity before insecurity consumed the entire country. For instance, there is hardly any forest in the country today that you will not find foreign elements.
“You call them foreign elements because the few that have been arrested from their accent and manner you would know that these are not Nigerians. We cannot continue to keep quiet where people that are strangers come to desecrate our royal institution, desecrate farmland, maim and kill our people without challenge.
“Take the case of Uwheru today where a lot of people are now staying indoors. They cannot assess their farmland because some individuals have taken over their farmland. The place is becoming a no man’s land, a no-go area that three police officers who were on rescue mission were kidnapped.
“So I’m using this medium to call on the federal government to act urgently to convoke a very serious security conference where this issue will be put on the front burner because it will be suicidal for us to keep quiet and then they overwhelm us.
The communication expert further added: “The hardship in the and has no respect for tribe, colour, and religion. Traditional rulers are also hungry, but that is not to say that that of traditional rulers will be as harsh as that of a lesser privileged person.
“I want to strongly advise that the earlier the government of the day wake up to its corporate social responsibility to his people for food sustainability the better. The government needs to holistically look at the possibility of cleaning our farmland, so that our people can go back to their farm and government need to have price control for food items.
“Today, you can no longer drive on two cars for a ceremony that is 100 kilometre without spending N200,000. So the government has to be proactive because the uprising that is coming would be unimaginable, as people have started to move from state to state.
“The government should address it now before it goes out of control. The government should take palliative measures that can alleviate the biting hunger in the country.”
