Ike Nnachi, Abakaliki
Crisis is brewing in Ekka community, Ezza North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State following the dissolution of town union leadership of the community by Governor Francis Nwifuru’s aide in the area, Chika Igboke.
It was gathered that the town union leadership led by a septuagenarian, Oketa Francis, which was constituted by the late traditional ruler of the community, has been in power for about 38 years now.
The leadership was however dissolved by the Coordinator of Imoha development centre, Chika Igboke.
Development centres are sub-division of Local Governments in the state while Coordinators appointed by Governor Francis Nwifuru are their leaders.
Oketa who was unhappy with the action of Igboke, said the dissolution was illegal and unacceptable to the people of Ekka community.
He opined that Igboke would have held stakeholders meeting in the place the community usually meet to discuss its affairs before taking his decision which he further described as unilateral and against the wishes of the people.
Oketa said “I have been ruling Ekka for many years now. I have been in power for over 30 years peacefully. We have laid down rules in this community on election and other matters. Whenever we want to do something in this community, we must discuss it public, we must gather to deliberate on it and then take a decision but this was not done before the said dissolution of the town union which I am heading and that is way we are saying that it is not acceptable.
“If the people of the community decide that they want to remove me, everybody must be aware of it, it must be discussed the way we normally do our thing . Coordinator of Imoha development who is our kinsman, didn’t consult anyone before dissolving the town union and we can’t accept it.
“If he consulted all the villages in the community and they agreed that I shouldn’t be their President anymore, I will agree but he didn’t do that. He just picked very few people and went outside the community and said that he has dissolved Ekka town union President. We have no issues in the community to warrant the dissolution of the town union President, I wondered why he did what he did.
“You don’t wake and dissolve a town union President, you have to do it peacefully and orderly so that the person in power can thank the people for giving him opportunity to serve them and the community can as well thank the person for his services to the people.”
A Youth Leader in the community, Nwafor Celestine, also condemned the dissolution of the town union executives by Igboke and vowed that it would be resisted.
“We got a distress call from our people that the Coordinator of our development centre, Imoha develop ment centre who happens to be our brother here, held a meeting at the centre and dissolved our town union which he never instituted to create problems in our community.
“Ekka people had met and resolved after series of meeting that they will constitute a committee which will take care of election in the town union. Stakeholders of the community agreed to meet on Easter Tuesday for them to resolve on how to elect or appoint town union President of the community since our President has served very well and he needs to rest.
“We are appealing to the local government and the state government to wade into this matter because our youths are not happy. I know what I have passed through trying to calm them down. We are happy that our Governor Francis Nwifuru gave our brother the Coordinator of Imoha development centre but he should stop using the position against us, he shouldn’t destroy the peace our forefathers kept in this community through his anti-people action.
“Before you do anything in this community, the people must meet but the Coordinator didn’t allow the people to meet because he has political power to do anything he likes, he wants to impose leadership on the community so that if any other person from the community gets political position tomorrow, he will follow his footsteps.
“This is how problems start in the community and the Coordinator should be called to order. The youths are not happy on his action, government should wade into this matter to avoid crisis. The community has been very peaceful, it is the most peaceful community in Ezza North and someone wants to set it on fire because of selfish interest,” he stated.
But Igboke dismissed the allegations against him as baseless and urged members of the public to disregard it in its entirety.
He noted that he meet with every stakeholder of the community and the entire people to seek their opinion before the dissolution of the town union executives.
Igboke opined that some of the members of the executives were too old and needed to be allowed to rest, adding that the town union was constituted by the late traditional ruler of the community, Ekechi Chukwu, in the early 80s.
“The allegations they are leveling against me are baseless and I would want members of the public to completely discountenance it in its entirety because what I did was in line with the agreement of the stakeholders of the community.
“In the first place, there was a meeting conveyed last year as a result of agitations from all the village heads. They came together and said that they would want an election of the town union because this year is making the present executives of the town union 38 years in office.
“It was our late traditional ruler, Ekechi Chukwu, who appointed them in the early 80s and since then, they have been in office till today. The village heads in the community started agitating since August last year that they would want a change in leadership of the town union which the stakeholders met and resolved that they will constitute ad hoc committee that will look into that. The committee was constituted and they went into their findings.
“The committee discovered truly that the town union executives have stayed more than 37 years in office. The committee recommended an interim executives to pilot the affairs of the town union pending when election would be conducted because many of the leaders in the present leadership are very old.
“The removed President is very old and has stayed for 38 years in office. The committee read their report to the community and all the stakeholders of the community including state government appointees were present when the report was read and the report was adopted,” he stated.
