By Izunna Okafor, Awka
The leadership crisis rocking Ifitedunu community in Dunukofia Local Government Area of Anambra State, appears to have taken a new dimension recently as some members of the community gang-beat and humiliated the elected President-General of the Community, Chief Uchenna Nwoye.
The dehumanising videos of the assault meted out to the PG and some of his loyalists have also been trending on the social media since last month ending
Recounting his ordeal, Chief Nwoye, who said he narrowly escaped death, accused the former town PG, Mr. Samuel Nweke, and his cronies of beating him in the presence of Nigeria police officers, causing him to run for safety through a nearby bush.
On how the incident started, he said: “I got information that Vincent Udeobi, Samuel Nweke and their thugs broke into Ifitedunu Civic Centre on Saturday 22nd July, 2023 destroying the keys to the halls to hold an illegal meeting. In Ifitedunu town union constitution, it is only the PG that has the constitutional powers to hold town union meeting at the Civic Centre.
“When I heard the office of the President-General at the Civic Centre has been broken, I called the Commissioner of Police who advised me to go to the Divisional Police Station to make my entry and to make my statement. So the police followed me thereafter to the scene to take photographs of what happened and to take inventory too.
“Meanwhile Samuel Nweke, Vincent Udeobi and some others when they had finished with their illegality called meeting, proceeded to the site of the ongoing community projects at Nkwo market and destroyed shops nearing completion. When I tried to stop them, they beat me like a common criminal in front of police men. I managed to escape, abandoning my vehicle there and managed to escape through a bush in the market. It was after the incident that police came back to recover my vehicle.”
Meanwhile, some other videos that also trend on the social media on the incident show one Mr Chukwudi Anene Raphael declare himself the new President-General of Ifitedunu Community while addressing some members of the community and traders at the market square. The self-acclaimed PG also accused the duly elected PG, Chief Nwoye of being an ex-convict, while vehemently insisting that an ex-convict cannot govern their community.
While claiming to be working with the people’s mandate, Mr. Anene also boasted that he would transform the community, rebuild the community market and restore everything he said Mr. Nwoye’s administration had spoilt and mismanaged.
Corroborating this emergence of a parallel government in Ifitedunu, the duly elected PG, Chief Nwoye said he called the State Commissioner of Police, CP Aderemi Adeoye, to notify and report everything to him.
He said: “I called the CP to report the incident too. So the CP is aware of this development. As we speak now, Vincent Udeobi has led one Chukwudi Anene who is now parading himself as the President-General. He broke my office and the said Anene is now occupying the office of the President-General.”
Asked why people are fighting him, Chief Nwoye said: “The reason why they are fighting me with everything they have was because when I was the Vice PG to Mr. Samuel Nweke, they planned everything to dethrone the traditional ruler. They started the process to unseat the traditional ruler which I told them I was not going to be part of it.
“When it was the turn of my village to produce the President-General, Vincent Udeobi bluntly told me that because I did not support his ally Samuel Nweke when he was the President-General; that he was not going to support me to become the President-General; that even if I eventually win, that he is going to make my government ungovernable. He told me this to my face.
“I have a video evidence where Vincent Udeobi is already acting as a traditional ruler and giving chieftaincy titles to indigenes of the community with every alacrity and every impunity; in a community where the traditional ruler is still alive and still on the throne. They are fighting me now because I did not support their ill intention to remove the Igwe.”
Asked about the allegation that he is an ex-convict, Chief Nwoye narrated how that he was wrongly accused of commiting a murder on 16th July, 2021 and was consequently jailed for the crime he never committed.
He, however, said the court later found out that he was in Abuja the day the said crime was committed, and therefore granted him freedom, having seen his evidence that he was not in Anambra state on the said date.
According to him, some other persons who were arrested in connection with the said fictitious murder languished in police cell for two years. He also revealed that it was just few weeks ago that the Court discharged and acquitted all of them, adding that the Court found out that nobody was killed on 16th July, 2021, as was alleged.
Chief Nwoye, who noted that the people fighting him and his leadership in Ifitedunu are also wrongly accused the Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Town Union Matters, Hon. Tony-Collins Nwabunwanne; even as he debunked all the allegations as a frame-up. He described as blatant lies, the allegation that the Commissioner was instigating crisis in Ifitedunu, as is erroneously being peddled in the online media by Samuel Nweke and his gang.
Going memory lane for more clarifications, he said, in 2021, under the administration of Willie Obiano, he was illegally and unconstitutionally removed as the President-General, while a Caretaker Committee was instituted. He, however, said when the administration of Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo came on board, he petitioned the Governor alongside other communities who had similar issues, appealing to the Governor to look into the issues for which they were illegally removed from office.
According to him, the Governor, in his wisdom, discovered that they did not commit any wrongdoing, breach the community constitution or the state constitution to have warranted their removal. This, he said, made the Governor to reinstated him as the President-General of the Community.
He therefore hinted that it was this reinstatement by the Governor that triggered all the allegations levelled against the Commissioner by Samuel Nweke and his cohorts.
All efforts made by this reporter to secure the reactions and the stand of the Anambra State Government on the matter proved abortive, as the Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Town Union Matters, Hon. Tony-Collins Nwabunwanne did not pick his call or respond to messages sent to him as at the time of filing this report.
