By Okechukwu Onuegbu
Awka
The Anambra State government, Thursday, said it was not ready to withdraw recognitions accorded to duly constituted or elected community leadership such as Presidents-General and Traditional Rulers.
The Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Hon. Tonycollins Nwabunwanne, who stated this in an interview in his office in Awka, the State capital, was reacting to a comment by one chieftain of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Vincent Udeobi.
Udeobi, a native of Ifitedunu, Dunukofia Local Government Area had in a press conference alleged that the commissioner refused to sack the President General (PG) of the community, Uchenna Nwoye, because they are friends.
Udeobi also called for sack of the commissioner, alleging that Nwoye was impeached as PG by the entire Ifitedunu and chairmen of five villages namely, Obiezie, Ugbomili ,Akwa, Umualugo and Uguala, after several attempts to draw the commissioner’s attention to the fact that Nwoye is an "ex-convict.”
But Nwabunwanne explained that the administration of governor Chukwuma Soludo always allowed communities to conduct President Generals and Traditional rulership elections as stipulated in their constitutions because the administration was committed to entrenching peace, law and order all over the 179 communities to speed up development.
According to him, Nwoye, the embattled PG of Ifitedunu was duly elected inline with the 2020 Constitution of Ifitedunu (amended in 2017), only for an individual to make an attempt to install another person while his tenure was still running and without following a due process.
He wondered why a single person should change the leadership of a community and bent on getting the government to recognise the installed leadership even when a due process was not followed.
A copy of the Ifitedunu Town Union constitution made available to Factcheckng, listed in section 19 (A), among other things, that an elected officer of the town Union could only be removed if discovered to be incompetent or breach the Constitution, and it must be carried out by 2/3 members of the community present.
The Constitution also explained that it was a well constituted general assembly which must be constituted either by the President General or Traditional Ruler, could only sack an elected officer of the town Union.
He therefore, noted that Soludo's administration has ensured that elections for traditional rulers and Presidents-general were held across over 100 communities since inception of the administration and would continue to do so, as it was not ready to use caretakers in running community affairs.
Speaking in another interview, the National President, Anambra State Association of Town Unions (ASATU), Barrister Titus Akpaudo, said the organisation had in December 2022 and June 2023 passed a confidence vote on the commissioner due to his good works since inception of Soludo's administration.
Akpaudo, who recalled that the incumbent administration made it possible for the Presidents- General to be having good and cordial relationship with traditional rulers, including meetings and peaceful resolutions of issues, added that most communities are currently having peaceful change of leadership administration.
He, however, asked the State government and law enforcement agents to expedite action towards investigating various acts of molestation, intimidation, assaults and even killing of Presidents general with a view to bring the perpetrators to book.
The ASATU National President listed some of the communities where Presidents general were attacked and killed in recent time by unknown assassins to include Omor in Ayamelum LGA, Oromaetiti in Anambra West LGA, Obosi in Idemili North LGA, Nimo in Njikoka LGA and Nanka in Anaocha LGA, and among others dealt with.
On Ifitedunu, he recalled that a prominent native of the community was causing crisis in the community, and according to a petition by the President General of Ifitedunu, Uche Nwoye, dated July 24th 2023, the prominent native mobilised thugs to molest, assault and nearly killed Nwoye.
He said they have petitioned the governor and the Police to investigate and bring the culprits to book so as to avert further assault on the PGs as they are serving their communities diligently and effectively.