By Okechukwu Onuegbu
Ezinano Community comprising 20 villages in Awka, Anambra State capital city, on weekend, disbursed ₦50 million in support of their women entrepreneurs and petty business owners to excel in the enterprises.
The community at second edition of Ezinano Day, a celebration of the community’s culture and heritage, said that another ₦50 million would be disbursed before December 2024 with a view to build a Community of entrepreneurs, captains of industry and jobs creators for everlasting peace and prosperity.
The community leader, Ọzọ Jeff Nweke, who announced this at the occasion, charged the women, especially mothers and caregivers to help in moulding the characters of their wards by always speaking and standing by the truth.
Nweke, who said they would always support and celebrate their members and residents with good characters, warned the youth to shun cultism and killings of any such, adding that they would never relent in supporting the law enforcement agents in identifying and prosecuting those caught in the acts.
"Today, we are also launching our ₦100 million empowerment scheme to enable our women engage in different businesses of their choice. But we are realising ₦50 million today for this project, while the other ₦50 million will be released before December 2024. This programme is part of our commitment to build a prosperous and peaceful community. We believe that empowering women is key to unlocking our community’s potential," he stated.
He thanked the community for the support given to his leadership so far, noting that he would hand over the mantle of Ezinano community leadership to another person before the end of December, 2024.
Speaking on the recent killings at Nibo, Awka and Nodu, Nweke described the act as barbaric, man inhumanity-to-man and unjustifiable acts, noting that Ezinano would support the police in identifying and arresting the perpetrators by placing a ₦10m reward for anyone with useful information that could lead to that.
Gunmen suspected to be cultists had on October 21, 2024 attacked Nibo community during new yam festival, including Nọdụ village in Okpuno and Ifite village in Awka communities, killing about 25 persons and injuring many youth, underaged, the aged and women.
According to Nweke, Ezinano which is a peaceful community would support the law enforcement agents to fish out those responsible for the heinous crimes even as they were not relenting in orientating their members not to engage in cultism or killings of any such.
Other stakeholders who spoke at the occasion, including Ọzọ Obi Ochije, Mrs Ifeoma Nwokoye, hailed Ọzọ Nweke for standing for the community when a capacity leader was needed to reposition Ezinano assuring that they would support whoever he would hand over the mantle of leadership to with a view to move the community forward.