By David A. David
THE Obi of Onitsha Obi, Igwe Alfred Achebe, who is also the Chairman of Anambra Traditional Rulers Council has faulted the Anambra State government over the suspension of Igwe Damian Ezeani, traditional ruler of Neni community and making sweeping statement to the effect that chieftaincy titles are traded.
Recall that the Anambra State Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, had on the 8th this month suspended Igwe Ezeani for conferring a chieftaincy title on Ifeanyi Ubah, Senator representing Anambra South district of Anambra State.
The Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Tony-Collins Nwabunwanne wrote the offending letter conveying the suspension order the Obi of Onitsha is bitterly complaining about.
In a letter dated January 12, Obi of Onitsha berated Nwabunwanne for accusing traditional rulers in the state of conferring traditional titles on individuals for pecuniary gains.
The letter stated that “without providing evidence for your sweeping statement about trading chieftaincy titles for money, you also, wittingly or not, thereby indicted the entire traditional institution of the State.
“Your press release to a global audience put the institution into disrepute when a direct circular letter to all traditional rulers as the parties of interest would have sufficed.
“The tone and language of your letter were, by any measure, a public riot act and pontification to the same majority of traditional rulers that you extolled as acting with dignity and integrity.
“The letter lacked respect and sensitivity in addressing the traditional rulers of Anambra State, who, by any standard, are held in very high esteem in the comity of the traditional institutions of Nigeria and beyond.
“Your reference to a second-term Right Honorable Distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as ‘one Senator Ifeanyi Ubah’ is most disrespectful, offensive, and unbecoming of one holding a political office as Commissioner.
“It is noteworthy that a person can only qualify to contest elections after scaling through the highest level of security checks at the federal level”.
The revered monarch further said the suspension of Ezeani and the threat of withdrawal of the certificate of recognition “suggest that there may be other issues with either Igwe Neni or distinguished senator Ubah, which are being stealthily ventilated in the circumstance.
“I was embarrassingly inundated with phone calls and messages from traditional rulers and other persons seeking clarification from me as Chairman of Anambra State Traditional Rulers Council (ASTRC) regarding a situation to which I was not privy.
“Your letter to Igwe Damian O Ezeani was copied to the Commissioner of Police, and Director DSS, Anambra State, but not to the Chairman of the ASTRC, he added.
