Danger! Ile-ife Declares "oro" Curfew!

Though there is denial of the death of the Ooni of Ife, the paramount ruler of Ile-Ife in south-west Nigeria, the custodians of Yoruba ritualized traditions related to the demise of an Oba have gone ahead to take the next expected steps:

Ife traditionalists have declared a seven-day Oro festival and curfew!

It is a known fact that such curfews are declared ostensibly to snoop and search for fresh human heads to bury in accompaniment to the carcasses of dead kings!

My suspicion is that the pained denial of the death of this local monarch is aimed at putting people off guard so that they may fall easy prey to the "oro" abductors!

I hereby call on the federal government of Nigeria and the international community to be proactive in this matter!

They must take concrete preemptive and preventive steps to ensure that more human lives are not lost to these wicked, archaic, uncivilized and obnoxious acts!

It is an open secret that even non-royal cult groups perpetrate horrendous atrocities under the guise of "private burials" where they cannibalise on dismembered human parts!

Cult members simply invade the homes of their deceased members. They come in loud queues...blocking traffic and generally constituting a nuisance! They do not hide such invasions!

And the earlier our nation criminalized secret burials, the sooner we would get out of all this enduring mess!

I care less about the expected rants of despicable protectors of "traditions" as this!

My tent is firmly pitched with the victims of such ruthless traditions!

And on a personal note, I hereby seriously admonish all non-natives of Ile-Ife to refrain from visiting this town for now...until this madness is over...at least for now!

For these ritualists tend to prefer non-natives as sacrificial lambs...as they come up as soft targets!

For such strangers are mostly unaware of such "traditions"!

It is the turn of Ile-Ife now...
I should sound my alarm bell when a king dies in another Yoruba town!

http://www.today.ng/news/08012504-ife-traditionalists-declare-seven-day-oro-festival/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Dr Tosin Akindele is a medical practitioner and public affairs analyst.