Category: Southeast report

The federal government in collaboration with the Abia State Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) is partnering with an organisation, Fadmobat, to train some 150 former militants from the Niger Delta areas who agreed to embrace peace.

The programme is part of the amnesty scheme designed by the federal government to rehabilitate repentant militants from the Niger Delta areas who willingly dropped their arms with the aim of turning a new leaf.

The amnesty programme is designed to give the ex-militants a sense of belonging through the training they will receive, which will make them useful to themselves, their immediate environment and the society at large.

Speaking in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, while flagging off the programme, the Programme Manager (PM) of Abia ADP, Chief Batho Onyemaobi said that the 150 ex-militants are made up of 149 males and one female who will be trained in various agricultural ventures.

Onyemaobi said that the federal government has sent them to Abia State to learn agricultural production which will make them useful to themselves and the society at the end of their programme, urging them to make good use of their time in the state.

The Abia ADP boss said that at the end of their one month training they are expected to be proficient in several agricultural fields, stressing that they will also be expected to choose their own area of specialisation.

He recalled that before the advent of crude oil that agricultural produce was the main economic stay of the country, adding that before now that most developments across the country were achieved from money gotten from agricultural produce.

Onyemaobi noted that the current fluctuation in oil price has made the federal government to decide to go back to agriculture first for food security and also for steady inflow of funds.

He said, “However with the way things are now the federal government has decided to go back to agriculture since the price of oil is no longer stable and most of those who used to buy our oil have found alternative ways of powering their industries”.

The Abia ADP PM said that when the country fully returns to agricultural production that more industries will open, as there will be job opportunities and the economic activities of the country will increase with its attendant finances increment.

Onyemaobi said, “During your stay here you will be brought up to speed on poultry, fishery, how to open up the land for proper farming, book keeping, farm business, marketing and farm personnel management so that when you open your farms its management will not be hard”.

He told them that they will not only learn the theory of agriculture but that they will also do the practical aspect of their entire programme, adding that with the practical programme that they will know what it takes to be a true farmer.

One of the ex-militants Abraham Ebiyekon wondered why their own training will be lasting for only one month when others before them had their training for a period of nine months, saying that one month will not be enough for them to learn all about agriculture for their benefit.

Ebiyekon recalled that it about ten years since they dropped arms to embrace peace and that all they agreed during their discussion with the federal government was education and not skill acquisition.

Responding the coordinator of the programme, Chika Cletus Abangwu said that if they have any grievances over the programme that they should put it down in writing and promised to channel such to the appropriate quarters for proper action.

Abangwu told them that after their training that they will be expected to put down their names, phone numbers, bank account numbers and other information needed, adding that it is through their personal data that they will be contacted to come for the empowerment they will need to start up their businesses.

Goal City Development Initiative ((CDI), an advocacy group for sustainable good governance in Enugu State, has begun to chart a new development path for the state.

The group, non-political and non-partisan, will hold every government in power in Enugu State accountable to the people of the state. It will also ensure that budget allocations from the Federal Government and internally generated revenues from the state are judiciously used on development projects.

Besides, it will ensure that every budget made for any project is speedily implemented to end the ‘abandoned project’ syndrome.

At its inaugural meeting held last month in Lagos, the group reiterated its commitment towards advocating for sustainable development and good governance at all levels in Enugu State. The group, which is community-based with a global focus on facilitating the development and welfare of the people of Enugu State, kicked off its operations at a ceremony that recorded an impressive turnout of members.

In a communique issued by Coal City Development Initiative and signed by its interim spokesman, Mr. Germanus Anyika, the group disclosed that its core goal is to build a strong feedback system as a way of engaging governments at all levels in Enugu State to achieve overall improvement of the people’s welfare.

Outlining the group’s objectives, Anyika listed among other things, advocacy for good governance and effective representation; championing beneficial development initiatives; influencing and lobbying for government policies with positive impact on the people; governance appraisal and benchmarking; monitoring and evaluation of impacts of governance and representations and provision of constructive feedbacks to officials of government at all levels in state.

The Coal City Development Initiative identified the need for a coordinated approach towards expanding the frontiers of good governance and sustainable development in the Coal City State, Enugu, as what brought about the formation of the group.

Anyika noted that membership of the Association is open to indigenes of Enugu State irrespective of political, religious and cultural leanings.

He emphasised that being a non-partisan organisation, its interest is predicated on good governance irrespective of which party or individual is at the helm of affairs.

The group’s slogan is ‘Good Governance’ he said, adding the group believes that only open and sincere engagements between the leaders and the led can lead to sustainable growth and citizens’ loyalty to government. The group decries the culture of unaccountability and poor representation by some elected and appointed government officials who consider their positions as birthrights or meal tickets.

The communiqué also stated that members of the Group across the State will hold a national convention in Enugu on a date to be announced, stating that the group will have operational offices in all the Local Government Areas in Enugu State in order to engage the grassroots, who suffer bad governance most.

The United Kingdom’s National Health Service has variously been described as “the greatest gift a nation ever gave itself”. And righty so because, thanks to the NHS, the country’s nationals today have at their beck a healthcare that easily ranks as one of the most qualitative in the world, catering to their medical needs from the cradle to the grave free of charge.

At its launch 70 years ago, Aneurin Bevan, the man regarded as the “father of the British NHS” famously noted: “Illness is neither an indulgence for which people have to pay, nor an offence for which they should be penalised; but a misfortune, the cost of which should be shared by the community.”

It was essentially a similar philosophy that inspired the Enugu State Free Maternal and Child Health programme. And given how positively it has impacted the lives of beneficiaries, it may well be described as the government’s best gift to pregnant women and under-5 children in the state. Like Bevan felt decades ago at the NHS’ launch, Enugu’s health commissioner, Dr. Fintan Ekochin, was just as exultant about the state’s free health programme. “What happened today is one of the greatest Executive Council approvals,” he declared on May 4, this year, at a press briefing.

The approval of which Ekochin had enthused was the Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi administration’s monthly contribution of N8.5m as counterpart fund for the state’s Free Health initiative, which brought the total figure available to fund the programme every month to N17m. “It has been alive but beset with a lot of problems,” Ekochin noted, adding that the increase would further widen access to medical treatment for  “our teeming young mothers who were unable to afford better healthcare services when pregnant and also all the children in the rural areas who are under five with a lot of childhood challenges”.

The problems the health commissioner was speaking about relates to the insufficiency experienced in the old order when the programme was funded solely by the 17 local government councils which contributed N8.5m every month. So the increased funding approved by the Ugwuanyi administration means reduced pressure on the programme, an improved capacity to accommodate more expectant mothers and infants and, more important, a further reduction in the state’s maternal and infant mortality rate.

To put Ekochin’s excitement in context, it’s important to consider some statistics that shed light on the state of maternal and infant health in Nigeria. According to a report published in 2013 by the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, the country has a maternal mortality rate of 576 deaths per 100,000 live births. The statistic is so because a significant percent of women is unable to access proper medical care while pregnant, a fact that is mostly a function of their economic state.

Although particularly worse in the northern part of Nigeria, the figure is roughly shared by the entire states of the federation with a few states that have over the years made substantial investments on maternal and infant healthcare, like Enugu had done, posting records much lower than the national average.

Dr. Celestine Nwolie corroborates this. As the chief medical officer of Udi District Hospital, a semi-urban facility where the free treatment for pregnant women and children could be accessed, he should indeed know. “Mortality rate has drastically reduced because many women who used to die in remote villages as a result of their inability to pay medical bills now come here in such large numbers to access the free treatment to such an extent that the doctors are almost overwhelmed,” he said.

Given its intangible nature, such progress data may tend to be overlooked as they are often not immediately discernible to all. But if the state’s Free Maternal and Child Health programme ever requires any validation, it is not in the trite sense of the buzz which a sustained media coverage generates. Its validation rather derives from the daily influx of expectant mothers and infants at primary healthcare centres across the state, people whose indigent status would have ordinarily proved a hurdle to standard medical treatment.

The case of Ms Ngozi Odo is a stark reminder of the risk borne by pregnant rural women prior to the maternal and child health programme. Odo, a trader from Nkanu West council area had her baby at Abakpa Health Centre, a primary care facility located in a high-density neighbourhood in the Enugu metropolis that records one of the highest outpatient visits. “I had a complicated pregnancy,” she said. “But thank God for the free health programme, I received the best care from doctors and nurses free of charge.” Without this, according to her, she might have been compelled to visit a quack. “That was how poor, pregnant women in my situation risked their lives in the past,” she added.

For Mrs Blessing Ene, the free health programme is the “real democracy dividend”. She is particularly thrilled that access to treatment is not restricted to indigenes. “Enugu State has really shown that the welfare of the people matter. The first time I came here, I was surprised when I inquired about my bill but was informed that I didn’t have to pay anything,” Ene, an indigene of Kogi State explained during her antenatal visit to Udi District Hospital, last week.

Similar cheery tales are recounted daily at the 450 primary healthcare centres and 53 secondary facilities spread across urban and mostly rural communities in the state which have all seen a surge in patronage since the programme was revamped with more funds and better implementation. But it wasn’t always the case. For instance, before the free maternal and child health programme was revived, the Abakpa Health Centre had all the typical tardiness of a public outfit with hardly any official around after 7.00pm. “We now run a 24-hour operation due to the large number of women visiting the clinic,” said Mrs Ngozi Nwobodo, the matron in charge of Abakpa Health Centre, who added that hundreds of children are treated monthly at the facility as well.

Asked what she considers the single most important benefit of the programme, Mrs Ngozi Nwobodo, didn’t have to ponder for long.

“It is the fact that many pregnant women who would have delivered their babies at home due to lack of funds now come here knowing they won’t have to pay,” she said.

• Ani, a former editor of ThisDay, The Saturday Newspaper, and later Saturday Telegraph, is a senior communications aide to the governor of Enugu State

Seven years since the last local government elections in Imo State, new chairmen have been elected, triggering joy and expectations among the residents. OKODILI NDIDI reports

It is not difficult to imagine the positive emotions in Imo State’s local governments as newly elected council chairs are sworn into office. The last time a semblance of election at the state’s grassroots was in the last days of the Ohakim administration. Even then that election was not seen as the quintessential people’s will. Since then, though, all the people had was transition committee chairmen neither elected by the people nor answerable to them.

That has changed. New leaders have been voted in by the people, and for the first time since 2010, the Imo grassroots is excited. They are also hugely expectant, looking forward to accelerated development.

The state government argued that the transition arrangement did not really affect development at the grassroots, adding that the government directly initiated programmes and projects in the communities that were supervised by the TC chairmen. The people, though, yearned for democratically elected leadership.

Argument advanced by those championing the return of democracy to the third tier of government is that it will bring government closer to the people and create employment and wealth in the rural communities, thereby discouraging urban rural migration.

To bring government even closer to the people, the state government created the Community Government Council (CGC) christened the fourth tier of government.

This continued for seven years with remarkable achievements in the areas of health delivery system in the rural communities, construction and repair of existing rural roads, improved community security system and development of education infrastructure, like building of new school building and remarkable increase in subvention to schools, as well as the free education programme.

Opponents accused the state government of deliberately crippling the third tier of government by diverting the federal allocations meant for the local government areas.

They challenged the state government to account for the billions of naira meant for the Local Government Areas since the inception of the ‘Rescue Mission Administration’ in the last seven years.

Another reason the state government gave for the delay of the conduct of the council election was the litany of court cases concerning the administration of the Local Government Areas. This lingered for almost seven years, coupled with the high cost of conducting the election as reflected by the budget presented by the state Electoral Commission. This was exorbitant and the state according to reports could not afford such amount when it could plunge same into addressing the many challenges it inherited from the previous administration.

But at last after years of suspenseful expectations, the Local Government election has been conducted. Local politicians have sprung back to life and the communities are bubbling with energy in anticipation to the new government at the grassroots.

Government has finally returned to the people and the expectations are high.

Fourteen political parties including the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Accord Party, Green Party of Nigeria (GNP), Young People’s Party (YPP), KOWA, Mega Party of Nigeria (MPN), Social Democratic Party (SDP), African Democratic Congress (ADC), among others, vied for the 27 Chairmanship and 645 Councillorship seats.

The Chairman of the Imo State Independent Electoral Commission (ISIEC), Hon Ethelbert Ibebuchi, while briefing journalists on the preparedness of the Commission 24 hour to the election said the Commission was happy to conduct the Council election seven years after.

According to him, “the Commission is ready for the election and we are urging the people to come out perform their civic responsibilities. Let me assure all and sundry that ISIEC has made available to all participating political parties and their candidates, a level playing ground to actively take part in order to actualize their political goals”.

He continued that, “may I in unequivocal terms assure our numerous publics that ISIEC is sufficiently ready to go. Be rest assured that as part of our altruistic design to ensure a hitch free exercise, there shall be restriction of movement of persons between 8am and 4pm when polls are expected to come to an end”.

Meanwhile the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) considered the main opposition parties in the state boycotted the election over allegations pending litigation that retrained the state electoral Commission from conducting the election.

But the ISIEC boss dismissed the claim as unfounded and mischievous, adding that, “I am not aware of any Court Order or judgment stopping the Commission from conducting the Local Government election. It is a different thing altogether for people to go to Court to make certain demands and conducting an election”.

The state governor, Rochas Okorocha who voted in his Ogboko Ward 2 Unit 1 in Idea to South Council Area, expressed optimism that the election will trigger new socio-economic activities in the rural communities.

He noted that the government decision to elect a Councillor to represent each of the communities bringing the number of councilors to 645 as against of the 305 Councillors elected in the past, was to ensure that all communities have equal representation in the management of the Local Government.

Meanwhile swearing the elected Chairmen in, the Governor charged them to shun corruption and relocate to their respective Council Headquarters inorder to create the needed cordiality with the people they were elected to govern.

He also admonished them to run an all-inclusive government that will not discriminate against anyone, irrespective of the religious and political affiliations.

Addressing the Chairmen, Governor Rochas Okorocha advised them to shun corruption and always remember the down trodden, adding that their election was a trust of the highest order and that the trust must not be abused but must be used for the benefit of the common masses.

He told them that the swearing-in ceremony signifies a social contract between them and the ordinary man on the street, telling them that in every action they would like to take they must first think about how it would affect positively or negatively on those they have been elected to lead.

The governor said “today among millions of Imolites, you have been chosen to steer the ships of the various Local Governments of Imo State. This victory is unique as it comes with a lot of responsibilities. To whom much is given, much is expected. You must ensure that the people do not regret voting you as their Chairmen”.

He continued “Before the coming of the Rescue Mission Government, we have had so many past elected Chairmen, Transition Committee Chairmen and the rest of them. I have taken time to assess their performances, I make bold to say that the only time in the history of Imo State that we have seen anything like delivering on Campaign promises and bringing dividends of democracy to the Local Governments is during this era of Rescue Mission Government. And I stand to be challenged”.

He said, “Within these seven years though under the Transition Committee arrangement, we can see Local Government building 200 bed hospitals, building schools in every ward of these Local Governments, now building ICT Centres and Chapels in every Local Government. During this period under review, no Local Government has built or constructed less than 50 kilometers of roads, all asphalted in addition to the free education that our children now enjoy, all courtesy of Local Governments of Imo State,

“This is to tell you the standard Local Governments have performed under the Rescue Mission Government. You must never perform less. You must perform more than these Projects we have done already.” he stated

The governor also remarked, “You are now the Chief Executives to manage the resources of your respective Local Governments. Prudency is the name of the game. This is the secret of the success of the Rescue Mission that today we can proudly say that no government in the history of the State can match our achievements”.

He also reminded them that “any corrupt Chairman will be compelled to face the wrath of the law. I have seen Chairmen come and gone. So the end of the matter justifies the matter. Public funds are dangerous as when you steal it, there is always an ultimate price you pay for it. Be careful with public funds. If it is a gift don’t take it. Make sure you can give account of any Public Fund you have used. This is the only way you can be out of the spiritual bondage or curse that comes with Public Fund”.

The governor also directed that the Chairmen should all live in the Council headquarters warning that it would now be an impeachable offence for any Chairman to live outside the Council headquarters and added that if funds permit, the Rescue Mission Government would partner with the Chairmen to build legislative quarters, so that the Councillors can also live there.

Also the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Chief Uche Nwosu who voted at his Eziamma Obire Polling Unit 4 in Nkwerre Council Area of the State, expressed joy over the conduct of the election.

In his words, Nwosu who is also a governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said, “I am satisfied with the conduct of the election, especially the turnout of voters. It showed that the people are eager to their Local Government Chairmen and Councillors and it will surely bring about development and stronger political participation in the communities”.

He added further that the election will enhance the efforts of the state government in developing the communities.

The APC state Chairman, Hon Daniel Nwafor, hailed the exercise as the reflection of the people’s mandate.

He attributed the party’s success to its high level of preparedness, adding that, “before the election, the APC embarked on a sensitisation and awareness tour of the 27 Local Government Areas and this has paid off. The result of the election also confirms the acceptability of the APC”.

The Chairman of the Mbaise Council of traditional rulers, covering the three Local Government Areas of Ezinnihite, Aboh-Mbaise and Ahiazu, Eze Leo Nwokocha, affirmed that it will bring about accelerated development in the communities.

Another traditional ruler and the Eze of Amainyi, Eze Emeka Ogbonna, confirmed that emergence of elected Council Chairmen will accelerate development in the communities.

According to monarch, “the Council election is a welcome development because it will help in developing the communities, even though the government of Rochas Okorocha has done very well, it will still assist in a great measure because it will first of all bring government close to the people. Like the Chairman of my own Local Government, who is well known and acceptable to the people”.

He however advised the Chairmen to carry the traditional institution along and cultivate the habit of engaging the people before taking far reaching decisions, especially on matters of development and mutual benefits.

The monarch also charged them to as a matter of priority compliment the efforts of the state government on education, rural roads to and security.

For Madam Caroline Adiuku, a restaurant operator, the development will revive the economy of the rural communities.

She said, “I used to run a restaurant in the Headquarters of Owerri Municipal Council and my business was booming until the elected Chairmen and Councillors were dissolved. For seven years the Councils were a mere shadow of its old self. The few staff that managed to come to work come late and leaves at any time. This affected my business and I had to close the restaurant and relocated to another place where I am managing now”.

Pastor Frank Akaolisa noted that in the last seven years, Local Government Areas in the state were in disarray, “in the last seven years, people who go to the Local Government Headquarters to access one service or the other went through untold hardship. The offices are often times open without any staff and there is nobody to complain to, but now that they have Chairmen, I think the story will change”.

He continued that, “the situation was even worsened by the fact that the so called appointed TC Chairmen don’t even come to the office, they just stay in Owerri doing their politics, while the respective Local Government Areas are left unmanned”.

Mrs. Veronica Oguwuike, a nursing mother also narrated her ordeal and that of other women who go to the Council Headquarters to immunize their children.

She said, “Before now if you come to immunise your baby at the Council Headquarter, you will wait till evening and nobody will talk to you. The health departments most time is locked and even when you are lucky to meet the few health workers, their attitude is very insulting and the worst thing is that there is no one to report to but now I think the story will change they now have an elected Chairman that they report to”.

She has three children from her marriage of seven years, but today, stricken by a neck disease, she feels abandoned by the one who should be her closest companion. She needs a lot of help. It is said that her husband has left her to her fate.

Twenty-four-year-old Mrs Janet Erdoo Tyavyar who hails from Gboko, in Benue State, has been suffering from Neurofibroma of the neck for the past six years.

She has nobody to lean on for help and requires as much as N6 million to be cured of her affliction.

She told The Nation that the little money she raised from some public-spirited individuals in the state had been spent on running some tests in different hospitals in the land.

The diagnosis carried on Janet revealed MRI features highly raised suspicion of a huge nuerofibroma, giant enlarged lymph and left parotid gland adenocarcinoma.

Her elder brother, Emmanuel Erdoo, told The Nation that her sickness started like a joke by causing her to always scratch her neck.

“When we discovered the swollen portion,” he said, “we took her to Teaching Hospital in Makurdi where she was referred to the National Hospital Abuja in January, 2017.

“Some tests were run on her at Union Diagnostic and Clinical Services Plc, where she was referred to India for surgery”

Erdoo said the sickness does not allow her to eat or breathe well and keeps her uncomfortable at all times.

An in-law, Mr Benedict Ayapia from Akwa Ibom State, described the sickness as worrisome.

He said he and the family had done all they could do without any remedy, adding, it is the reason for soliciting for help from good spirited individuals in the country, in other not to lose victim.

In a letter the family made available to The Nation in Awka, Anambra State, they are appealing to Governors Willie Obiano of Anambra State and Dr Samuel Ortom of Benue State to come to their aid.

Also their cry for help, equally went to Senator George Akume, Hon John Idyeh, representing Gboko / Tarka federal Constituency in Benue State Miss Becky Orpine, Gboko local government area Chairman among others. Account Name —Janet Erdoo Tyavyar. Account number ——3120291255. Bank Name —First Bank PLC. GSM Number —07037432398

The Abia State government has donated 29 hectares of land to African Women Economic Consortium, (AWEC), an international non-profit organisation, in demonstration of its support for the organisation’s Nwalota Village project.

Speaking at his palace in Okpuala, Ohuhu clan in Umuahia North council area, HRM Eze Kingsley Emekolobum disclosed that the commissioner for lands had received directives from Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to thoroughly inspect the land.

Eze Emekolobum said that the land is situated in Ohuhu Community, and prayed the perfection of their good will for the state, while assuring them of the relentless support of his cabinet to ensure a successful completion of the project.

In her speech, Dr Uwa Onyioha Osimiri, President, AWEC thanked the royal fathers and state government of Abia for their magnanimity, explaining that the organisation was founded to resuscitate and promote the dying culture of the African nation.

Osimiri insisted that the proposed building of NWALOTA village, an AWEC project, which simply means  Nigeria Welcomes Africans Living Outside the African Continent, (NWALOTA) would improve the state both culturally, economically, and socially.

She lamented on the decaying African culture and values and maintained that NWALOTA project was aimed at turning Abia state into a Tourist state, and bringing African Americans back home to their mother land and welcome them into communities thereby making them a part of the community, as well as creating an environment that’s culturally themed.

The highlight of the event was the conferment of chieftaincy titles, Nwanne Di Na Mba (1) of Ohuhu, on Chief Dr. Nobantu Ankoanda and Chief Kelenna Omanne Osimiri, the foreign investors and BoT members.

Responding, Akoanda thanked the royal fathers for the honour done on her and reiterated that the vision of the organization was to empower the African women, as she decried the relegation of the African women folk to the background but, however, maintained that empowering the woman meant empowering the nation.

In her speech, Udomezue Kama Onyioha described tourism as the greatest economic instrument of the world, adding if the United States was like Abia I never would have left here to go over there.

Onyioha said, “I went there to experience a different thing. You go outside your environment to see other culture thereby monetizing other cultures. Culture lasts forever even though you may lose the goal. So, even if you lose everything you have, you can’t lose your culture, traditions and religion”.

In addition, Omanne Osimiri, amidst ecstasy described the chieptaincy title conferred on her as an unanticipated kind gesture, noting that it is a perceived responsibility saddled on her.

She disclosed that her long nurtured ambition to leave a legacy by making impacts on the lives of her good people of Abia and the Nigerian society in general, through her proposed medical outreaches.

The traditional ruler of Ibeku kingdom in Umuahia North of Abia State, HRM Eze Samuel Onuoha Ogurube IV has advised residents of the area to shun any political act that could divide the people.

Eze Onuoha gave the advice while flagging off this year’s new yam festival for the eight communities that make up the clan, saying that politics which is supposed to be a blessing to them is gradually turning into a curse.

The traditional ruler who was supported by all the traditional rulers in the clan, President Generals, chairmen of the various community and cultural groups, described the occasion as ancestral ceremony as in the old.

He regretted that these days, the church has multiplied and tradition multiplied, but the bible talked about the ancient and modern, while our ancient system is being allowed to die a natural death.

Eze Onuoha however lamented that some people want to kill Ibeku culture which has now been taken over by neighbouring clans and communities, saying that all good traditions in Ibeku should be revitalised and urged the people to do good always.

Speaking during the occasion, the member representing Ibeku East in the Abia State House of Assembly, Hon. Chukwudi Apugo urged his kinsmen to do the ceremony peacefully.

Apugo condemned any misunderstanding among Ibeku people over the occasion’s date, urging all Ibeku traditional rulers to open their doors to their people, while urging the people of Ibeku not to take any enmity existing within them into the new yam ceremony, (new year).

In their separate speeches, the Ibeku royal fathers, including Eze Aguiyi of Ndume, Eze Ibeabuchi of Okwulaga, Eze Ibezim of Amuzukwu, and Eze Ezeigbo of Uhabiri Ossah said the Ibeku royal fathers are in the know of the cause of any division in Ibeku land.

The traditional rulers said that the new yam ceremony has been done and advised their Ibeku subjects not to use any foul language on their dissenting brothers so that they would not contInue to move away from the community activities.

They said, “It is Ibeku first politics and party is a personal thing and all Ibeku sons must not throw in their political eggs into one basket politics should not create problems for Ibeku people and Ibeku politicians on the other party should not make others their enemies”.

They advised that all political positions being held by Ibeku sons and daughters should be used to better the positions of Ibeku land instead of allowing such positions to go into their heads and cause division among the people.

The royal fathers however regretted the absence of the traditional ruler of Afarata Ibeku, Eze Israel Kanu, the father of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu whose where about is yet to be ascertained since the Nigeria military conducted its Operation Python Dance II one year ago.

The Ibeku royal fathers then called on the state and federal government to do more to produce the royal father, stressing that the absence of their colleague is setting his kingdom back and slowing down development in that area.

Speaking with newsmen during the ceremony, the Traditional Prime Minister of Ndume Ibeku and the President General of Ndume Ibeku Federated, Chief Sunny Onyebuchi Nwakodo described the occasion as great.

Nwakodo said that the ceremony was done according to ancestral tradition as the seven Egwus (communities) of Ibeku land, through their traditional rulers, their President Generals and chairmen of their communities participated fully.

He advised his people to celebrate in a peaceful manner and maintain sanity and called on them to adhere to government instructions of movement of traffic as the clan is now in the urban and warned stranger elements not to use the occasion to steal and for which the Ibeku indigenes will be blamed for.

Nwakodo said, “By culture, Ibeku people have done what the people are supporting through our paramount ruler, the Ogurube, any other person acting otherwise has gone contrary to Ibeku culture, but people are free to celebrate personally”.