The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor EA Adeboye, has condemned in strong terms, the increasing rate of k!llings of traditional rulers in Nigeria.
Scores of communities across the country have had their monarchs eliminated by suspected bandits.
Disturbed by the onslaught, Pastor Adeboye prayed during the February 2024 RCCG Holy Ghost Service that those who dared to disrupt the peace and stability of the nation’s monarchs would face dire consequences and would not find peace.
“The fire of God will consume all those trying to mess around with our traditional rulers,” Pastor Adeboye declared during the spiritual programme tagged, ‘From The Mountain Top 2’.
Every year, the foremost cleric also holds a convention for traditional rulers in the country.
He said during this month’s Holy Ghost service that “Because as far as God is concerned, traditional rulers are anointed.”
This week, 3 traditional rulers have been brutally murdered within 4 days. This is in addition to the frequent kidnappings for ransom and the k!llings of hapless kidnap captives.
On Monday, Oba Olatunde Olusola, the Onimojo of Imojo-Ekiti, and Oba David Ogunsola, the Elesun of Esun-Ekiti, were killed while returning from a meeting in Irele-Ekiti, Ekiti State, South-West Nigeria.
In addition to the closure of many schools in Northern Nigeria due to wanton abductions, the south east and the south west have become terrorised in like manner with an onslaught against their institutions.
4 Days ago some pupils and teachers of the Apostolic Faith Group of schools were abducted with N100 million demanded as ransom for their release. When the parents and the community were only able to raise about N450 thousand, the kidnappers reduced the amount to N15 thousand.
Reports filtered in on Friday night that the victims were freed. It is not yet confirmed if the ransom was paid.
The violence continued on Thursday with the merciless murder of General Segun Aremu-Coker (retd), the Olukoro of Koro, in the Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State. The retired army General was shot dead at his palace.
The fact that Koro is adjacent to Ikole Ekiti, where two traditional rulers were previously killed, raises concerns about the alarming trend of targeted attacks on traditional rulers.
In response, security agencies, including the police, have deployed helicopters and armoured carriers to Ekiti and are determined to apprehend the culprits.
Nigerians no longer venture out of their homes except for unavoidable circumstances. Road trips have been widely jettisoned as most of the attacks happen on the highways. Trains have also not been spared.
The airlines have hiked their fares citing aviation fuel prices, cost of maintenance etc.
Hunger looms in the country as imports no longer come from war-ravaged Ukraine and local farmers fleeing their farmlands for fear of bandits’ attacks.