Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting
The dethroned traditional ruler of Umuona community in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State, Igwe Humphrey Ejesieme, has begged governor Chukwuma Soludo for fair hearing to prove his innocence of the accusations leveled against him that led to the withdrawal of his certificate of recognition by him (Soludo).
He said that if Governor Chukwuma Soludo had given him fair hearing, he would have discovered that the petition written against him by the President-General of Umuona Town Union, Chief Kenneth Okoli was ill conceived.
Recall that the state government had in June, 2023, through the Commissioner for Local Government, Town Union and Chieftaincy Matters , Tony Collins Nwabunwanne, withdrawn the certificate of recognition issued to Igwe Ejesieme in 2014 by former Governor Peter Obi and consequently declared the chieftaincy stool vacant.
Through the government’s directive, a cross section of the community who welcomed the government action elected and crowned Chief Ikechukwu Ezeofor as their new traditional ruler in place of Ejesieme, while others who did not conform with the idea, boycotted the election exercise, even as the government went ahead and issued Ezeofor with a certificate of recognition as the new traditional ruler of Umuona.
But addressing Journalists in his palace at Umuona, Ejesiema who insisted that he is still the Igwe by virtue of government’s refusal to give him fair hearing, recalled that Kenneth Okoli had written a petition to the state government alleging that he stormed Umuona Civic Centre during their December 28 Annual General Meeting with armed thugs and wanted to attack him, but he escaped by hurriedly leaving the high table where he was presiding over the meeting as PG and rushed home for fear of being attacked by the thugs.
Ejesieme said that the government acted swiftly on the petition written by Okoli and took a decision to withdraw his certificate of recognition on June 13, 2023 without giving him a fair hearing, probably because the PG has two or three connections within Governor Soludo’s corridors of power.
The embattled traditional ruler said that within his 10 years reign, he had embarked on massive development of his community and has maintained the peace until the recent negative turn of events.