David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka
Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State has come under heavy attack by the people of Umudioka community in Dunukofia Local Government Area of the state for allegedly imposing a traditional ruler on them.
Obiano had presented certificate of recognition to Chief Raphael Chukwura as the new monarch of the community last Tuesday at the Governor’s Lodge in Amawbia.
But the action, instead, has received condemnation from people of the community, including the king-makers, who insisted that the new king was never chosen by the people nor emerged through their due customary and traditional processes of selecting a traditional ruler.
Chairman of the king-makers known as Nzeoba Oji-Ani Umudioka, Chief Nwachukwu Chiezie, in an interview told journalists that the people of the community had already chosen Chief Harry Obi-Nwosu, a Professor of Psychology at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, as their Igwe-elect.
He said: “We had even started according him full rights as a traditional ruler, and he was even on the verge of being presented with a certificate of recognition by the then Governor Chris Ngige when an action instituted in the court stopped it.”
Chiezie vowed that the people of the community would explore every traditional and legal means to ensure that the new monarch does not reign over the community.
Also reacting, the immediate past President-General of the town union, Mr. Chuka Odenigbo, condemned the action of the governor, adding that the certificate of recognition presented to the new monarch amounted to contempt of a subsisting order of a court of competent jurisdiction.
Several other communities in the state, including Obiano’s Aguleri, are still enmeshed in kingship tussle.
