… Igwe-Elect Seeks Soludo’s Intervention
By Ikeugonna Eleke
Azia Community in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State is currently in turmoil over a tussle for the traditional stool of the community.
This is as the community has been polarized into two lines, with some people opposing the crowning of the monarch-elect of the community, Chief Felix Ifeanyimuo, while a second group has insisted he is the right person for the throne.
In the midst of these, the monarch-elect of the community has called on the Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, to intervene before the crisis snowballed into violence.
Last week, elders of the community who are opposed to Ifeanyimuo’s ascension to the throne took a protest to the Anambra State Government House, accusing the Igwe-elect of holding the community hostage and insisting on a fresh election.
But Ifeanyimuo in a press briefing, Friday, March 22, lamented that three men in the community were using their enormous wealth to plunge the community into turmoil.
He described the elders of the community who came on a protest to the Government House, Awka as hirelings.
‘Those people you saw were just hired people, you cannot call them elders. They are the main problem of the community and they know that once I’m crowned, their business is gone, because the problem in the community is their only means of livelihood.
‘We held election nine years ago and I contested with Prof Titus Eze. We emerged as double Igwe-elect and were presented to governor for him to crown one of us, but later, Eze died and I was the one to be crowned and some people have been fighting me since then.
‘They have brought several persons to contest the Igweship with me in a fresh election and I said no. You can’t hold a fresh election. They have tormented me, fought me with gunmen, bullied me with police; petition everywhere.
‘They have been bringing many people and presenting them to the government, but they have received the same answer that this is a constitutional meeting and that the community already had Igwe -elect in me.
‘I have even been advised to call a stakeholders peace meeting of Azia people so that I can appease, especially the three people that are behind the problem, which I did. We agreed that they would go and fashion out an agenda that could engender peace in the community.
‘But the next thing I saw was that they started circulating letters that the town had agreed to start afresh with a new election process, and, to me that was betrayal. One of the men lives overseas. I bought his ticket to return for the meeting, the other charged me N500, 000 and others made demands and I paid,’ Ifeanyimuo said.
The monarch-elect called on Governor Soludo to wade into the crisis before it degenerated.
‘We are calling on the governor to please come to Azia and restore peace. He should prevail on these people causing problems in the community,’ he said.
