By Adejoke Adeleye/ Ogun
A group of traditional religious worshippers in Abeokuta, Ogun State, have joined forces to invoke deities for safe return of over 40 schoolchildren and teachers abducted by terrorists from three schools Oriire local government area of Oyo State about three weeks ago.
Dr Omolara Fashola-MacGregor, wife of the Olu of Orile-Ilawo, Oba (Prof.) Alexander Olusegun MacGregor led different traditional religion adherents in Abeokuta to different sacred sites, including the Olumo Rock to seek intervention of the deities for release of the schoolchildren and their teachers from captivity.
Gathering at an ancestral shrine in Abeokuta, the traditionalists expressed profound grief and outrage over the mid-May terrorist raid on three schools that left an assistant headmaster dead and dozens of innocent children into captivity.
The women, who were clad in symbolic traditional attires performed sacred rites, using libations and prayers to appeal to the deities for swift justice and immediate setting of confusion for the criminal syndicates holding the victims.
Olori MacGregor, speaking at the frontline of the spiritual invocation, emphasized that when physical security frameworks appear slow or overstretched, the spiritual guardians of Yorubaland must be awakened to fight for the vulnerable.
“The cries of these innocent school children have reached the heavens,” Olori MacGregor declared during the spiritual session.
“We are invoking the spirit of our ancestors and the potent deities of our land to go into the deepest forests. May those who have taken these children find no sleep, no peace, and no safety until every single child and teacher is returned unharmed.”
The intervention by the Egba traditionalists coincides with mounting unease in the Southwest over the abduction in Oyo State and across the nation.
Members of Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT and other groups have taken to the streets in Oyo State and other parts of the Southwest in protest over the abduction of the schoolchildren and teachers.
The protesters tasked President Bola Tinubu, Oyo governor, Seyi Makinde and the nation’s security chiefs to ensure speedy rescue of the abductees.
The traditionalists maintained that their spiritual move is a supportive pillar to the ongoing tactical search-and-rescue operations by the military and newly approved state forest guards.
Prominent traditional leaders at the gathering warned that the desecration of human life and the traumatization of young children go against the core spiritual ethos of the Yoruba nation.
They vowed that the spiritual exercises would be sustained across different ancestral hubs in Ogun and Oyo states until a positive breakthrough is achieved.
They warned that any criminal element operating within the region’s forests would soon face the wrath of the natural elements.
