Indigenes of the Umuyota Autonomous community in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State on Thursday marched out in their numbers to attend the court hearing in a suit bothering on the Ezeship Tussle instituted by Chief Admimchinobi Abraham against Chief Sunny Nlewedim and other responders including the state governor, faulting the selection of a traditional for the community against the wishes of many members of the community.
The aggrieved indigenes have approached the Abia State High Court sitting in Umuahia the state capital to seek redress for the alleged action, the matter was called up for hearing at the state high court in Umuahia on Thursday 18th July 2024 but was adjourned for the respondent’s to file their defense.
In an interview with some indigenes of Umuyota Autonomous community present in court, Mr Victor Ndudim alleged that the traditional prime minister Chief Jonathan Ogbonna, together with a few individuals in the community announced the selection of an Eze-elect when the process was yet to be concluded.
He also alleged that a few members of the community acted on selfish motives basing the selection of the Eze-elect on membership of cult groups which was not inline with our constitutional guidelines. according to him, “My community nominated me to be a member of the Ezeship screening committee after the demise of our former traditional ruler Eze Nwakanma, the traditional prime minister constituted a body to screen all the people who want to become the Eze and the extant guides handed to us does not stipulate or make it mandatory for aspirants to be members of the okonko, ekpe societies or any other cult group, it was, therefore, irrational to base the qualification for the Ezeship of a community in a modern society such as ours where people are free to exercise their right of association on the membership of a secret society whose membership is less than five percent of the entire community.
Speaking further he said “Having failed to coerce Chief Adimchinobi Abraham into joining any of the secret societies they perfected their plans on how to screen him out “Three people indicated interests in becoming the traditional ruler, but before we could conclude our screening process, surprisingly the result was announced by the traditional prime minister and few members of his cabal.
“They claimed to have based their decision on the reports of the screening committee which is yet to conclude the screening process and I will authoritatively tell you because I am a member and I attended all the meetings of the screening committee we are yet to harmonize our findings and proceedings, and we have not presented any report and to our surprise, they announced Chief Sunny Nlewedim as the Eze Elect.
“Also In the constitution of Umuyota that was pioneered by the traditional prime minister, those of us from Umuokorofor had proposed an amendment to the constitution, I was the secretary of Umuokoroafor during the drafting of the constitution while we are yet to conclude on the signing of the document for it to take effect, even the four village heads have not signed the amendment, the TPM started acting on the document that is yet to become a working material and is therefore ineffective.
“It’s still a surprise to me as the secretary of Umuokorofor and to many others who were part of the constitution amendment committee how they secretly inserted the clause that one must be a member of the traditional institution before becoming the Eze, and whilst we were in the committee I had insisted for clarification to some of these issues and what it meant because we have many institutions including our welfare Union”
” So basing their judgment on the membership of Okonko in an elitist society such as ours is unacceptable, we have less than five percent of the entire community in the Okonko society so it can’t be the determining factor”
“Their argument, is that they wanted an Eze that would protect the Okonko society, so what happens to the Christian community which is predominant, and other socio-cultural societies? We cannot have a constitution that will discriminate against people based on their choice of association and they can’t mandate people to belong to the Okonko society even where Okonko is one of the societies described by the Nigerian constitution as a secret society.
I don’t condemn anybody who wants to belong there because it’s their choice. But we can’t have a constitution that will stop people from becoming our traditional ruler except he/she is a member of a secret society”?
“That’s why we are in court today to pray the Court to stop the cabal and give the people the opportunity to allow the whole community to come together and select their traditional ruler and Chief Adimchinobi Abraham is the people’s choice”.
Also speaking, another member of the Ezeship screening committee, Pastor Chukwunyere Johnbull Ibekwe, pointed out that the selection of the Eze-elect was done without the endorsement of the members of the community.
In his words, “I’m Pastor Chukwunyere Johnbull Ibekwe, I was a High chief before I became a pastor. We’re challenging the selection of the Eze-elect by a few individuals against the choice of the majority of the screening committee and the larger members of the Umuyota Autonomous Community.
“I was among those who pleaded with one of our sons Adimchinobi to become the traditional ruler, for the past two years we have been pleading with him because of his personality, reach, generosity, exposure, kindness, and love for our community, and humanity in general and we believe he will make a great king and at last he decided to heed our call and all the villages were in support of his candidacy.
“I was a representative of the Chiefs in council in the committee and also the treasurer.
Our constitution stated that the Eze in council should select the chairman of the screening committee, while the committee should select its secretary. So we chose Barrister Onyenakom as our secretary. We all interviewed Adimchinobi, but when it was the turn of the other candidates many of us were not invited, and as such we don’t know if they came for the screening or not.
“They claimed that the chairman of the committee resigned and many of us in the committee weren’t aware, they presented one Maxwell Iheomametu to represent the secretary when I enquired about the secretary from the chairman of the committee he shouted at me. They didn’t present the decision they took behind us to the committee for scrutiny, but went behind the members of the committee and also members of the community to present Sunny Nlewedim to the Local Government. That’s why I’m here to bear witness to what transpired without fear or favour.
“We want the Court to cancel the improper selection of the Eze-elect and let the choice of the people prevail”.
Another native of the community, Chief Francis Nnabuihe Onuoha, from Umueke Okpuala Umuyota Autonomous community a former palace secretary, in his submission, also faulted the process of selection of the Eze-elect, while making a strong case that the right of the community members to choose their leader should be respected, he pleaded with the court to please allow the wish of the people to prevail, he hinted that it is the members of the community that filed the matter in court on behalf of Chief Abraham and we are standing by him, he stated that no one has the right to impose an unpopular Eze on us.
His words, “We are here today to oppose the attempt to impose Chief Sunny Nlewedim as our Eze-elect, he is not the choice of the people. The choice of the people is Chief Adimchinobi Abraham because the majority of the people in the community, including the youths, chiefs, and women support him.
Another member of the community Mr. Friday said “We don’t want a crusade king, we want someone who can hold our ofor na ogu and project our culture including strengthening the Okonko and Ekpe societies, and during the screening, Chief Adimchinobi Abraham refused membership of our cultural societies that’s why we can’t have him as our Eze even though he is popular, we are solidly behind Sunny Nlewedim.
Those joined in the matter include Dr Sylvester Ibekwe, (chairman Umuyota Ezeship screening committee.) Chief Okechukwu Ogbonna (President General Umuyota Welfare Union) Maxwell Ugo Nwosu (Secretary of Ezeship screening Committee) Chief Sunny U. Nlewedim (Nommiee of Umuyota Ezeship screening Committee) the chairman of Umuahia North Local Government Area, Honorable commissioner Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Governor Abia State, Attorney General Abia State.
The matter was adjourned for further hearing by the presiding judge to enable the respondents time to file their defense.
