Oba Yisau Oyetunji Otunla, the Olukoyi of Ikoyiland in Isokan Local Government Area of Osun State, where a final year student of Lagos State University (LASU) Favour Daley-Oladele was murdered, has said if traditional rulers are empowered by government to manage the security of their territory such a horrible incident could have been prevented.
WuzupNigeria reports that 23-year-old Owolabi Adeeko, 23, lured Daley-Oladele, 22, to a Cherubim & Seraphim Church at Ikoyi-Ile where he confessed to killing her while she was asleep by using a pestle to smash her head, and later her organs were removed for a ‘get-rich-quick’ money-making concoction.
Otunla, in an interview with newsmen after visiting the area where the supposed church is located called on government to enact a law that would mandate potential residents of an area to first appear before the traditional ruler of such community for screening.
“If we are empowered to secure our territory, this may not have happened. Government. If it can be mandated by a law or an act that anyone who wants to reside in an area must first appear at the palace of a traditional ruler for screening, including the landlord, that will curb happenings like this one in Ikoyi,” the monarch said.
“If we adopt such strategy, monarchs will know those living in their domains. With that, it will be difficult for anyone to perpetrate evil as such could be easily detected by royal fathers and people working with them. With the current system of government that concentrates powers in the hands of government, people can do anything they like.”
Otunla added that after visiting the place, what he saw in the thick forest where the supposed church is located is a shrine and not a Christian worship center.
“I went there yesterday (Monday). I did not go alone. I went with my chiefs. Some journalists and policemen also accompanied us there. I didn’t see the place as a church. I considered it a shrine. It is located inside a thick forest.”
The monarch said after interacting with some residents of the area, he gathered that the pastor Segun Phillips is not an indigene of the town.
“They told me they did not know the man that owned the said ‘church’. From my findings, the self-acclaimed pastor is not an indigene of Ikoyi. The fellow who took the lady to the place, his mother and the victim are also not from Ikoyi. When I also asked how long they have been using the place, I was told it has been up to two years.”
