Deposed Traditional Ruler Threatens To Drag Enugu Govt. To Court

Dethroned Chairman of Enugu West traditional rulers’ council and monarch of Amadim Olo, in Ezeagu local gov ernment area of Enugu state, His Majesty, Hayford Agana has threatened to drag the state government to court over his removal as traditional ruler.

The monarch said he would be asking for N200 million as damages from the state government for the embarrassment caused him by the withdrawal of his cer tificate of recognition should the government fail to re verse same.

The state government in a letter by the Commissioner of Chieftaincy Matters, Pas tor Emeka Abugu had sus pended the monarch over alleged refusal to handover “assets of Enugu West Tra ditional Rulers Council, a Toyota Bus and the sum of one million naira to the new executive.”

In a letter addressed to the secretary to the state govern ment in which the monarch conveyed his intention to sue the government, he insisted that the vehicle in question and the one million naira were personal gifts to him by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.

Stressing that the bus was not the property of Enugu West traditional rulers coun cil, the monarch who at tached the receipts of pur chase and other transactions concerning the bus, said it was in appreciation of his support to the Deputy Sen ate, adding that the one mil lion which he (Ekweremadu) gave him on the day of de livery for maintenance was equally shared with other tra ditional rulers.

He narrated in the letter by his Counsel, Peter Eze that Governor Sullivan Chime had in 2013 convoked a meeting of all recognized traditional rulers in the state, where he dissolved the zonal executives of the council and appointed new ones, adding that Igwe Samuel Uka was appointed to succeed him.

He said that he was sur prised to receive a letter from the Commissioner for Chief taincy Matters that the rea sons he had given concerning the bus was not acceptable to him and had gone further to suspend him for allegedly refusing to “hand over the bus and the sum of one mil lion naira”. Eze said that the Deputy Senate President had corroborated his story when on July 2, 2014 he wrote the Commissioner for Chieftain cy Matters informing him that he purchased the ‘bus in question for my client’s per sonal use and also gave the sum of one million naira as donation to assist with initial running costs of the bus’

“On July 18, to our Cli ent’s greatest surprise, the commissioner for chieftaincy matters further wrote our cli ent withdrawing his recog­nition as traditional ruler of his community. We would thought that since Senator Ekweremadu was the per son that purchased the bus and made the gift, his letter would have been conclusive as to the ownership of the bus and money. The purpose of this letter is to request you to direct the Commissioner for Chieftaincy matters to restore our client’s recogni tion as the traditional ruler of Amadim–Olo”, Eze wrote.

He said unless the with drawal was reversed, the monarch would be challeng ing it in court as “arbitrary, il legal and unjustifiable”, add ing that he was not given a fair hearing before the with drawal was made.