The Chairman of Amundi Village Youths in Eha-Ulo Community, Eha-Alumona in Nsukka local government area of Enugu State, Mr. Henry Nwamba, has said that the election conducted to elect a new traditional ruler of the community was not illegal but an internal arrangement to reduce rancour and crisis.
It was gathered that the Igweship throne of Eha-Ulo Community was zoned to Eha-Murueze, which is a clan that Amundi belong, with five persons from the village indicating interest to contest the election.
However, in its effort to harmonise the process aimed at uniting the interest of the village towards producing a consensus candidate, the leadership of Amundi Village Youths conducted election for the contestants, to narrow the number of aspirants to one.
The election saw to the emergence of Okechukwu Oziokoha Nwamba as a consensus candidate from the village.
Addressing newsmen in Nsukka, the Amundi Village Chairman, Henry Nwamba, dispelled insinuations that the exercise was done without the approval of the president general of the community, insisting that it was an internal arrangement planned by his executive with the support of the entire village.
He said, “Our village was told to go and bring a candidate for this Igweship throne. And five persons indicated interest to contest from one village. But to ensure we didn’t go into the election divided, we muted the idea for election, the five contestants agreed. One later stepped down, allowing the remaining four to go into the election.
“We had wanted them(the five aspirants) to select one person among themselves. But none agreed until we fixed this election as an internal arrangement.
“This doesn’t prevent the town union from still going ahead to conduct the election, which is to organise a formal election any day they want. But our own is an internal arrangement to position the best among us so that we won’t have to struggle too much for that”. Nwamba said
He lamented that the President General of the community was attempting to discredit the election because his candidate Paulinus Ugwuanyi did not emerge in the exercise.
“The town union is the umpire here, it’s saddle with providing a level playing ground for all aspirants not agitating/protesting for some aspirant. Eha-Ulo Town Union (ETU) erred by issuing a press statement condemning how a village conducted her internal election. Imagine INEC condemning the primary election of ADC. Villages are like parties in this election and their internal affairs should be their headache not ETU’s,” he said.
In his reaction, Okechukwu Oziokoha Nwamba thanked his people for the confidence reposed in him, assuring them that he was read to participate in any election conducted by the town union.
But Oziokoha lamented that the constitution of their land stipulates that any clan expected to produce the Igwe is given a free hand to do so, and the Eha Mulueze clan, to which Amundi belongs, has not produced a king since the division into nine autonomous communities.
