…those parading selves as Concerned Citizens of Alor are quislings. Okonkwo is already out of the throne, Chukwumesili is our incumbent monarch – Igbonwa, ex town union boss
By Chuks Eke
The nine year-old chieftaincy squabble at Alor community in Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra state, home town of Senator Chris Ngige, immediate past Minister of Labour and Employment, appeared to have gradually started rearing its ugly head once again, barely 19 months after the dethronement of Igwe Mac-Anthony Chinedu Elibe Okonkwo by the court and the enthronement of Igwe Collins Chukwumesili in his place by the community.
The Anambra State High Court, presided over by the Administrative Judge of Ogidi Judicial Division, Justice Pete Obiorah had on February 17, 2022, asked Okonkwo to vacate the throne because he was not qualified ab initio to be selected and enthroned as Igwe of Alor, among several declarations and orders.
However after, Okonkwo approached the high court with a motion for stay of execution to enable him remain on the throne till the determination of the Appellate Court, but on June 9, 2022 the court struck out the motion.
Few months after his dethronement, Okonkwo headed to the Court of Appeal and filed another motion for stay of execution, together with an appeal to quash the judgement of the lower court asking him to vacate the throne. The appeal is still pending.
The squabble started rearing its ugly head recently when the aggrieved people of Alor community accused Okonkwo of continuously parading himself as the traditional ruler of Alor by attending public functions and above all celebrating a new yam festival as the monarch, in defiance of the high court judgement which had asked him to vacate the throne and stop parading himself as Igwe of Alor, as well as struck out his motion for stay of execution.
Consequently, the aggrieved section the community forwarded a strongly worded petition to Anambra state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice to draw his attention to the effect that Mac-Anthony Okonkwo was still parading himself as the traditional ruler of Alor community in defiance of the subsisting court judgement, together with the fact that his motion for stay of execution had equally been struck out by the lower court.
The petition prompted a strongly worded Legal Opinion from the state Attorney-General asking Okonkwo to obey the court order and stop parading himself as Igwe of Alor until the hearing and determination of both the motion for stay of execution and substantive appeal against the lower court judgement still pending at the Appellate court, so as to avoid total breakdown of law and order in the community.
This latest legal opinion/ warning appeared to have elicited some mixed reactions as a group of persons from the area who identified themselves as Alor Concerned Citizens immediately issued a press statement insisting that Mac-Anthony Okonkwo has not yet been fully dethroned as Igwe of Alor, until the Appellate court upholds or dismisses the lower court verdict, adding that until then, such rumours of dethronement are false, misleading and should be disregarded.
According to the group which spoke through its spokesperson, Reverend Innocent Udochukwu, although the lower court had restrained Okonkwo from further parading himself as Igwe of Alor, Okonkwo is currently in the Court of Appeal seeking the nullification of the lower court judgement.
But the aggrieved persons, led by the immediate past President-General of Alor Peoples Convention (APC), Chief Uzoma Igbonwa (Okife Alor), described those parading themselves as Alor Concerned Citizens as mere quislings and paid agents who are spreading false rumours to mislead the general public in the area popularly known as Alor London.
He contended that rather than making positive and meaningful contributions towards the peaceful, progress, unity and development of the town, the paid agents are busy creating confusion capable of retarding the progress of Alor town.
Reacting to their press statement debunking the rumours of dethronement of Okonkwo as the traditional ruler of Alor, Igbonwa emphasized that Okonkwo’s dethronement was a reality and no longer a rumour or debunkable.
Insisting that Okonkwo does not have any more legal right to continue to parade himself as Igwe Alor, Igbonwa recalled that after the lower court had dethroned Okonkwo and struck out his motion for stay of execution, he is only left with both his second motion for stay of execution and his main appeal both still pending at the Appellate court. It follows that the High Court judgment that dethroned Mac-Anthony Chinedu Elibe Okonkwo is subsisting and must be obeyed and complied with, save, and until the contrary is established.
He argued that if the court had upheld Okonkwo’s motion for stay of execution, he would have had the right to remain on the throne till the determination of his appeal against the lower court judgement but since the motion was struck out, he has no legal right to continue to parade himself as Igwe of Alor until the determination of both the motion and the main appeal.
Brandishing a report of compliance to the lower court judgement which then ordered the Alor Peoples’ Convention to select a new traditional ruler to be enthroned to occupy the vacant Igweship throne created by the dethronement of Okonkwo, Igbonwa recalled that Alor Community had since selected and crowned Evangelist Collins Chukwumesili as the Igwe of Alor shortly after the court verdict and he is now on the throne as Ezedioramma 111 of Alor pending his certification by the State Government. Therefore, you can not have two traditional rulers at the same time in one community.
Justice Obiorah had in his judgement, declared: “I grant an order that the certificate if recognition issued to Okonkwo by the state government on June 23, 2014 is in breach of the constitution of Alor Peoples Convention then in force and Anambra State Traditional Rulers Law 2007″.
The judgement stemmed from a civil suit filed by Okonkwo and two others, Frank Nwabufo Okoye and Ifenna Okafor in suit No. HID/354/2019, asking the court to restrain the defendants, Incorporated Trustees of Alor Peoples Assembly and Chief Uzoma Igbonwa ?the then President-General of Alor) from among other reliefs, conducting any form of election for the purpose of selecting a new traditional ruler in place of Okonkwo (the third plaintiff), because he had already been recognized and certified by the state government as the Ezediohamma 111 of Alor since 2015.
But in what looked like a twist, Justice Obiorah, while delivering his judgement, ordered Mac Anthony Okonkwo to forthwith desist from occupying or using the Palace of Obi Eze Agbudugbu (the original ancestral abode of Alor people) and generally intermeddling in the various customs and practices as well as administrative affairs of Alor town.
Justice Obiorah also granted an order directing the second defendant/counter-claimant Igbonwa as the President-General of APC elected in compliance with the judgement in Suit. No. A/14/2015, delivered on February 5, 2019 in conjunction with the Regency Council of Alor, to commence the process of filling the vacant stool of Igwe of Alor, in accordance with the 2011 Constitution of Alor People’s Convention.
The judgement read in part: “I grant an order that the certificate of recognition issued to Okonkwo by the state government on June 23, 2014 is in breach of the constitution of Alor Peoples Convention then in force and Anambra State Traditional Rulers Law 2007”.
“I declare that the purported selection and presentation of Okonkwo as a traditional ruler of Alor town by the Caretaker Committee of APC by a contrived process held between April 7 and May 17, 2014 is null and void for the breach of extant provisions of the 2011 constitution of Alor People’s Convention which replaced the constitution of APC 1992 and traditional rulers law of Anambra state, 2007 or any other law relating to traditional rulers”.
