Chinedum Treasure
Angry youths from Nnobi in Idemili South Local Governnent Area of Anambra State have distanced themselves from alleged plan to dethrone their 87- year-old traditional ruler, Igwe Nick Obi.
The protesting youths who stormed Agu-Awka Governnent House with placards marched through the Enugu – Onitsha expressway insisted they were not part of the game plan to dethrone the monarch installed in 2007 after meritorious civil service career.
Some of the placards bore inscriptions like: “PG And His Cronies Working To Unseat Nnobi Monarch,” “The PG Has Lost The Trust And Confidence of Nnobi Stakeholders and Citizens”, “PG Nnobi Is Not For Sale,” “Enough Of Sacrilegious Witch-hunt Against Igwe Nnobi,” “PG Nnobi Should Not Sell Nnobi Cheap To Anyone,” “Say No To Sit-tight, Expired Ebenesi and Ngo Quarters Leadership” and “Nnobi Peace Committee Report Is A Fraud.”
Leader of the protesting youths, Comrade Emeka Eze accused President-General of Nnobi Welfare Association, Barr Dom Okpala and Okpala Nnobi, Chief Ifezue Onyechi of masterminding the hatchet job.
He cited the purported doctored Peace Committee Report hurriedly submitted to the state governnent as an instrument to actualize their ambition.
He said, “President-general is hobnobbing with the purported tenure-expired Chairmen of Ebenesi and Ngo quarters, Obiora Okongwu and Patrick Mbanefo respectively with some members of the Chief Ifezue Onyechi-led Nnobi Peace Committee to doctor the position paper they unilaterally ratified and forwarded to Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Community Affairs, Tony-Collins Nwabunwanne without the endorsement of Igwe-in-Council or major stakeholders.
“The actors in the plot want to remove Igwe Obi and install their preferred stooge, one Ohamadike, but this move will be resisted by the youths.
“The youths who came from the three quarters of Ebenesi, Ngo and Awuda Nnobi respectively are here to call the President-General and his cohorts to order to avoid throwing the peaceful community into crisis and anarchy.”
Eze further claimed that the community had passed vote of no confidence on the leadership of PG, who he accused of being high-handed and neck-deep on the plot to remove the 87- year old monarch at all costs.
He described the said Nnobi Peace Committee Report as fraudulent, contending that the Okpala Nnobi, Chief Ifezue Onyechi was being carried away by “quarter prejudice with Etuka who is the key agent of anarchy and plotted by the PG to doctor their so-called Peace Committee Report.”
The Youth leader dismissed the idea of inclusion of anybody that had issues to be handled in the alleged constituted Peace Committee to avoid a situation of aporobating and reprobating, concluding that “the Report of the incompetent Committee is dead on arrival.”
Also speaking, Public Relations Officer of the Youth body, Christian Uzuegbunam accused the detractors of Igwe of allegedly “hijacking and doctoring the White Paper to suit their inordinate ambition, vowing that the youths would resist any tendency by group to cause anarchy in the community.
Respondong, Commissioner for Local Govermnent, Chieftaincy and Community Affairs, Collins Nwabunwanne apreciated the peaceful conduct of the protest and reminded them that the Professor Chukwuma Soludo administration is law-abiding and impartial.
The Commissioner, represented by the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry, Comrade Henry Nwasike sympathised with the Nnobi Community on the recent fire which razed some shops in the community.
“Coincidentally, the matter for which you are protesting is being ironed out by government with some stakeholders of Nnobi Community.
“The Soludo administration appreciates the enormous potentials of youths in the state as leaders of tomorrow and the engine block of development and hope of nation-building,” he stressed.
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