Nwanosike Onu, Awka
THERE is tension in Nsugbe community in Anambra East council of Anambra State following the groundswell of opposition to the kingdom’s traditional ruler, Igwe Victor Ntorka.
There was a protest march in the community against the monarch at the weekend led by their chiefs, one of whom 107-year-old Pa Arinze Obiagwu.
A mock burial of the ruler was also conducted by the community.
Nsugbe is the community of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) ,Dr Tony Nwoye, Senator Alphonsus Igbeke and naval officer in charge of Southeast including Delta and Rivers states, Rear Admiral Perry Onuzulike.
The protesters comprised widows, elders and youths.
The blind Pa Obiagwu, who is the oldest man in the community, wept as he addressed reporters, saying Igwe Ntorka desecrated the culture and traditions of Nsugbe and was no longer fit to be ruler.
The monarch reportedly refused to recognise Pa Obiagwu as the oldest person in the area, something Obiagwu said never happened in the history of Nsugbe.
One of the community leaders and a member of the Igwe in Council, Obi Ifeanacho Akwudo, said the “former” monarch turned everything in Nsugbe upside down.
Spokesman for the community, Chief Nzeadigwe Nweke, while addressing the protesters, said the monarch sponsored armed robbery and kidnapping in Nsugbe and refused to answer the call of elders in council with regard to the allegation that his actions led to the killing of a young man in the community and burning of two buildings.
The Nation made several efforts to speak with the monarch, all to no avail as he could not be reached on the phone.
One of his allies, though, who pleaded anonymity, described the allegations from the community as false and unfounded
“Igwe is a good person. Everybody in this community knows about his goodness. The allegations are false and politically motivated,” he said.
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