Magnus Eze, Enugu
A pan-Igbo youth organisation, Anambra Ekunie, has accused the Anambra State Government and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) of coaxing and literally intimidating traditional rulers in the state to support their quest for Governor Willie Obiano’s successor to come from Anambra South Senatorial District.
The group alleged that there are moves to compel 30 traditional rulers from each zone to sign a communique endorsing the zoning of the 2021 governorship to the South.
It claimed that the Government has threatened to dethrone any traditional rulers who failed to back APGA’s zoning of the Governorship in the state.
The Church and the traditional institutions are two major factors in elections in Anambra State; while there are about 179 traditional stools in the state.
In a statement by the President of the group, Dr Ifeanyi Achusi, obtained by Daily Sun in Enugu, the group also said the state’s Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Community Affairs has been mandated to enforce the project.
Achusi stated that some traditional rulers in the state particularly those who had publicly spoken against the purported zoning of the governorship, had been identified for sanction.
The group further disclosed that already, arrangements were on to convene a meeting of traditional rulers in Awka, the state capital; where 30 monarchs from each zone would be compelled to sign a communiqué endorsing zoning of the Governorship to Anambra South.
‘Recall that traditional rulers from Anambra North; had on March 22, this year, declared that they were against zoning just like their counterparts from the Central, but what appeared like a recant on the part of those of them from the North was the handiwork of government. The government-sponsored materials on media that they have jettisoned their disapproval for zoning.
‘Some of them have been tongue-lashed and threatened that they should be ready to lose their certificate of recognition and staff of office if they did not back down. We are in touch with them and they are bitter about what is going on,’ the group stated.
A traditional ruler from Anambra north, who preferred anonymity for fear of being punished, confirmed that his colleagues across the zones had been under undue pressure from the state government in recent times over the zoning issue.