From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Enugu
Piqued by the crisis rocking many communities in the Enugu State which has claimed lives, including those of two traditional rulers, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has appealed to the people to show love and seek peace.
The governor, who has been inundated with petitions, counter petitions, protests and counter-protests over chieftaincy tussles, autonomous community creation and land disputes, urged the people to imbibe the fear of God in all their agitations in order to avert bloodshed.
Governor Ugwuanyi made the appeal to the people of the state when he addressed the people of Amafor Ugbawka autonomous community who staged a protest at the Government House over what they called the balkanisation of their community in the name of the creation of Umuisu autonomous community.
The governor said although it is normal for people to agitate and have disagreements, they should do so with brotherly affection and not resort to fighting and shedding blood.
The governor noted that his administration has worked very hard to ensure peace and harmony in the communities and has run an open door, accommodating every shade of opinion and was still ready to listen to genuine matters brought to it to ensure that the peace in the state continues to flourish.
He promised to invite the people mentioned as the architects of the troubles in the community, and resolve the matter.
Earlier, the spokesman of the protesters, Nwankwo Bartholomew, had told the governor that the community had written him a letter on the issue, insisting that the people were neither consulted nor given their consent for the said creation of Umuisu autonomous community, adding that they were happy and peaceful were they were as Amafor Ugbawka autonomous community.
In their letter signed by 31 persons including Ferdinand Nwodo, Sunday Okonkwo and Monday Ani, the people said among other things: ‘We hereby inform Your Excellency that at no time did our people aspire to be created into an independent autonomous community away from our kits and kin in the Amafor Ugbawka autonomous community.
‘Whereas we doubt the veracity of the claim that we have, without our knowledge and request, been constituted into an autonomous community, we however hereby request Your Excellency to exercise some restraint and carry out an in-depth investigation into the people’s feeling in this unsolicited “gift”. Least in our people’s desires now is the demand for a creation of an autonomous community. Mr. Sunday Nwobodo, the presumptive heir of the so-called autonomous community is conducting himself in a manner suggestive that the new community is a whimsical creation, attained merely on the altar of the influence of his money.
‘One of the most enduring qualities for which Your Excellency has received wide acclaim is in your abiding inclination to enthrone peace. The peculiar nuances of Nkanuland, and even more so, the character and disposition of those in whose care traditional institutions are kept, are points that Your Excellency should not handle dismissively.
‘We, therefore, humbly implore Your Excellency to kindly call those at the Ministry of Chieftaincy Matters to order, to enable a detailed investigation into whether our people actually want an autonomous community; and how only two villages of not more than 200 households are indeed qualified to be constituted into an autonomous community.’
