Men of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Nigeria Police, Enugu State Command, today re-arrested the dethroned traditional ruler of Amandim-Olo in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State, HRH Igwe Hayford Agana along with four cabinet chiefs loyal to him.
This is even as the Enugu State Government on Thursday issued a ‘Letter of Recognition’ to a new traditional ruler, Chief Eric Nwankwo whom it allegedly imposed on the community.
Igwe Agana who had earlier told journalists that he was being persecuted for associating with the Deputy President of the Senate, Chief Ike Ekweremadu, was initially removed as the Chairman of Enugu West Traditional Rulers Council where both Senator Ekweremadu and Governor Sullivan Chime hail from, before he was subsequently suspended allegedly for failing to return a bus and N1 million, which the Enugu State Government claimed were assets of the Traditional Rulers Council.
However, the monarch in his reply dated March 11, 2014 and backed with receipt of purchase and vehicle registration particulars said: “The vehicle you were referring to was a gift given to me by His Excellency, Ike Ekweremadu. Since July 12, 2013, when he gave me the bus, I have used it not only for myself, but for the purpose of Enugu West Traditional Rulers. That act of magnanimity on my part cannot however change the fact that the vehicle was given to me personally.”
Chief Ekwermadu collaborated the explanation in a letter to the Enugu State Government.
“I did not buy or donate the bus to the Traditional Rulers Council of Enugu West. I also gave him the sum of N1m as donation to assist him with the initial operating cost of the said bus”, explained.
However, the State Government in a July 18, 2014 letter entitled ‘Withdrawal of recognition as traditional ruler’, and signed by the Commissioner for Chieftaincy Matters, Pastor Emeka Abugu, said: “I am directed to refer to my earlier letter No: MCM/CM/605/VOL.111/101 dated June 17, 2014, suspending you as the traditional ruler of your community.
“Consequent upon your refusal to comply with government directives therein, your recognition as traditional ruler is hereby withdrawn pursuant to section 10 of the Enugu State Traditional Rulers Law.”
About a fortnight ago, the police came down hard on members of the community protesting the dethronement of their traditional ruler and imposition the same person defeated by Igwe Agana in 2002.
The African Independent Television, AIT, had on Saturday, September 2014 showed footages of police allegedly beating up and using teargas on the protesting elderly men and women.
Igwe Agana was subsequently arrested for allegedly using thugs to disrupt a state government programme in his community.
However, a statement by the Enugu Rescue Group had faulted the arrest insisting that “those elderly men and women peacefully and legitimately protesting the impunity and dethronement of their traditional rulers could not have been thugs”.
It took the intervention of over forty royal fathers who stormed the police formation to secure the release of their colleague.
Although efforts to speak with the Enugu State police command proved abortive, there are indications that the Igwe’s re-arrest was not unconnected with the said protest and 2015 political calculations.
It could be recalled that an Enugu labour leader, Comrade Osmond Ugwu was in 2011 arrested by the men of the Nigeria Police during a Minimum Wage Rally in Enugu and held in prison for over three months for alleged attempted murder against a policeman.
