How Enugu PDP Deputy Guber Candidate Removed His Traditional Ruler, By Surveyor Eddy Mba Nwaezimo

HOW ENUGU PDP DEPUTY GUBER CANDIDATE REMOVED HIS TRADITIONAL RULER, BY SURVEYOR EDDY MBA NWAEZIMO

Ezimo Agu, an autonomous community in Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State and country home of Barr. Ifeanyi Ossai, the PDP deputy governorship candidate for 2023 elections has been anything but tranquil in the past couple of weeks. A community which ordinarily should be basking in the euphoria of a possible emergence of her illustrious son as deputy governor, is now wishing it never did.

According to a reliable source from the community, trouble started when the Enugu State government in its insatiable craze for communal lands acquisition, and for purposes not shown to be in the overriding public interest, began to map out hundreds of acres of land in Ezimo Agu as having been taken over by the government, something the community saw as a bitter pill to swallow.

The source also disclosed that following the development, some aggrieved indigenes of the community have already concluded plans to challenge what they consider as an illegal acquisition in the court of law having not been done in the overriding public interest.

In the midst of the impasse, an illustrious son of the community and deputy governorship candidate of the PDP in the upcoming elections Barr Ifeanyi Ossai suspected to be on the government’s side, invited the traditional ruler of the community HRH Igwe Brendan Ogbu to a private meeting to discuss the matter, an invitation he promptly honoured.

The source further disclosed that the Igwe at their meeting made it clear that his community was unprepared to cede any inch of its territory for any purpose not considered to be in their very own interest. Not ready for any compromise, Barr. Ifeanyi Ossai was allegedly infuriated and accordingly warned the Igwe to be careful with the tough stance he was taking as the matter was capable of landing him in trouble. The source continued that when the Igwe left, the deputy governorship candidate and some agents of the government who were with him accused the Igwe of ganging up with the opposition as the only possible explanation for his stubbornness and vowed to deal with him.

Barely two weeks afterwards, HRH Igwe Brendan Ogbu was suspended as the traditional ruler of Ezimo Agu autonomous community through a letter personally delivered to him by the commissioner for Chieftaincy Matters Barr. Charles Egumgbe.

Another notable indigene of the community informed this writer that as the Igwe’s removal deepened the crisis and threw the entire community into turmoil, he placed a call to Barr. Ifeanyi Ossai to confirm the allegation making the rounds that he was behind the Igwe’s suspension and was shocked by the response he received. Barr. Ifeanyi Ossai confirmed to him that he did so because the Igwe insulted him.

Following a sequence of ugly developments, the Ezimo Agu autonomous community has not only vowed to continue resisting the illegal acquisition of her vast communal lands for private purposes within the confines of the law but also continue to hold their beloved traditional ruler HRH Igwe Brendan Ogbu out as their Igwe whether or not recognized by the government. The community wonders what would happen to it if Ifeanyi Ossai was elected deputy governor having already begun to throw his weight about as a deputy governorship candidate.

The Ezimo Agu autonomous community has therefore in unison resolved to stop Ifeanyi Ossai and his Ebeano PDP collaborators from winning any single polling unit in the community for a party that has once again begun to demonstrate penchant for impunity, arbitrariness and abuse of power reminiscent of what the state suffered under Chimaroke Nnamani as Governor of Enugu state.