Presiding Bishop of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission, Mike Okonkwo, has alleged that traditional rulers know the kidnappers in their communities.
Okonkwo said this on Sunday in an interview with journalists after his sermon at the 7th edition of the Leading Edge Conference and Business Summit organised by TREM (Vision House) in Utako, Abuja.
The preacher said monarchs should be held responsible for rising spate of kidnapping.
“The people perpetrating kidnapping and other forms of violence did not drop from the sky; they came from somewhere. They are living in the same community where they do these things,” he said.
“I have spoken with some traditional rulers that these things that are happening. As far as I am concerned, if somebody comes to my town or a state where I am operating and begins to kill people indiscriminately, then I will suspend the traditional ruler.
“How can that happen? I am in charge of a place and the traditional ruler of a town and such incidents like kidnapping happen in my town. You mean I cannot do something to find out where they are coming from? Where are they and where are they hibernating?
“They shoot people in the highway and run back into the bush in a state where somebody is a governor. We have had cases where some culprits were arrested. Governors and traditional rulers should own these problems and not be crying. Every day, they are crying; I am tired of their crying, they should do something as leaders,” Okonkwo said.