Osun Osogbo Festival: Police, NSCDC assure tourists, residents of security

The police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have assured residents and tourists attending the grand finale of the annual Osun Osogbo Festival of adequate security.

The security agencies, in separate interviews on Monday in Osogbo, said arrangements were in place for adequate security for the event.

Yemisi Opalola, the spokesperson for the police in Osun, said that adequate personnel would be deployed during the festival’s grand finale holding on Friday in Osogbo.

Mrs Opalola said the police and other security agencies would provide water-tight security before and during the festival.

She called on parents and guardians to caution their children to be law-abiding at the event.

Kehinde Adeleke, the NSCDC spokesperson in Osun, spoke in the same vein.

Mrs Adeleke said the state commandant of the corps, Agboola Sunday, had made arrangements for security for the festival.

She said the command would deploy personnel to strategic locations in the state, adding that the command is also in synergy with other sister agencies to protect lives and property during the event.

The commandant, therefore, call on unscrupulous elements, who are planning to cause a breach of peace during this festival, to desist or be ready to face the full wrath of the law.

The Osun Osogbo festival, which dates back many centuries, is usually celebrated in an ancient grove believed to be among the last of the sacred forests among Yoruba cities.

Recognising its global significance and cultural value, the Sacred Grove was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.

For the people of Osogbo, the festival symbolises the traditional cleansing of the town and the cultural reunion of the people with their ancestors and founders of the Osogbo kingdom.