Imo community in crisis over royal stool …Traditional ruler chased away, community blames Gov Okorocha

This is not the best of times for His Highness, Eze Blaise Uba, the Oluoha 11 of Mgbala Agwa autonomous community in Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State.
Uba who is the newly installed paramount ruler of Mgbala Agwa community is now living  in self-exile in Owerri, the Imo State capital, about 27 kilometers away from his kingdom.
His exile followed the alleged destruction and vandalization of his country home by persons believed to be the supporters of Chief Eugene Ohamara who is contesting the traditional stool with him.
Oriental News investigations revealed that the throne, of Mgbala Agwa autonomous community, which is made up of 11 villages, but is sub-divided into what the community called (Three Rounds), is rotational and not hereditary.
It was equally learnt that the throne has been vacant since 2007 following the death of Eze Charles Ukwu from Okwudor village, which is the second of the six villages from Round One.
Based on the rotational arrangement it becomes the turn of Round Two, which is made up of three villages, namely Umuelekwe, Umuezali and Umuoboro  to produce the next paramount ruler of the community.
However, there arose disagreement on which one among the three villages should be the first to produce the Eze and this has lingered for about eight years as none of the contestants from the three villages was willing to shift ground.
It was said that in order to resolve the lingering Ezeship crisis in the community, Imo State governor, Rochas Okorocha on the March 31, 2014, summoned all the eight contenders from the three villages to the Government House, Owerri where he personally interviewed and screened the candidates, disqualifying six of the contenders after the interview, leaving the duo of Sir Blaise Uba, a retired Superintendent of Police from Umuezali village and Chief Eugene Ohamara from Umuelekwe village,  as the contestants.
Determined to end the Ezeship crisis, Governor  Okorocha it was learnt provided six ballots, informing the contestants  that only one of the ballots was written Eze and that whoever picks it automatically becomes the next monarch of the community as he asked them to pick one at a time.
After they had picked the six ballots, he told them to unfold it to reveal what they had.
Fortune smiled on Sir Uba as out of the three ballots he picked one was written “Eze”, and immediately Governor Okorocha proclaimed him the monarch of Mgbala Agwa community and presented him with a staff of office.
While Governor Okorocha may have succeeded in using the “ballot system” to resolve most Ezeship crises  in most communities in the state, the case of Mgbala Agwa was different as the governor’s ballot lit up a  dry gunpowder in the community which explosion has reportedly left about six persons dead, many allegedly missing and property destroyed as the supporters of  Sir Uba and his main rival, Chief Ohamara have continued to clash.
It was alleged that the supporters of Ohamara had vowed to make the community ungovernable for Sir Uba except he relinquished the throne to their preferred candidate.
As a result of the skirmish; most prominent members of the community have fled their homes to escape the reign of terror being unleashed on the people.
Oriental News reliably learnt that on April 5, 2014, Chief Ohamara had allegedly mobilized his supporters who stormed the home of  Eze Uba, demanding that he relinquished the staff of office given to him by Governor Okorocha or face their wrath, claiming that he had bought the staff of office from the state governor as he was not the choice of the community.
Narrating his ordeals to Oriental News at his Owerri residence where he is taking refuge, the embattled monarch disclosed that the problem started after he was given the staff of office by the Imo governor on March 31, 2014.
According to him, “Eight of us were initially contesting for the Ezeship but after series of screening and interviews by Governor Okorocha and going through the constitutions of the village, he disqualified six others, leaving myself and Eugene Ohamara as the contenders and to decide who becomes the new Eze, he drew ballots for us.
“Governor Okorocha told us that out of the six ballots that only one is written ‘Eze’ on it while the rest are ‘No’. But when Eugene Ohamara picked first in spite of the fact that I am his elder, the governor told him to return it and first pray to God for guidance before picking the ballot and Eugene said that he knows that he is the rightful person to be the Eze, and then picked. And when it came to my turn to pick, I prayed to  God that whoever will bring peace and progress to Mgbala Agwa, let him be the Eze and  I picked and when we have picked three ballots each, the governor ordered us to open the folded ballots to see what we have and one out of the three ballots which  I picked was written ‘Eze’ on it and there and then Governor Okorocha declared me the Eze and gave me staff of office and that was how I became the Eze because it was given to me by God because this happened in the full glare of all our people who had come to the Ahiajoku Centre where the process took place”.
The monarch alleged that on April 5, 2014, Chief Ohamara organized his supporters who stormed his home and started shooting sporadically into the air, demanding that he should immediately hand over the staff of office as he was not the rightful Eze.
He disclosed that he had chased them away and then reported the incident to the Agwa police station.
He also claimed that on May 17, 2014, while in Owerri, he received a distress call that a former youth leader and a supporter of Chief Ohamara had impounded the motorcycles of some youths from the community and that he had called the current youth leader (Ajero) to send his task force members  to retrieve the seized motorcycles from the former youth leader , but that the youth task force member sent to retrieve the motorcycles was  beaten to coma by the youths loyal to his rival.
“But these hoodlums who had forcefully seized the motorcycles from some youths of the community descended on the person sent by the task force chairman and beat him up to a state of coma and  abandoned him on the road, but for the quick intervention of my supporters who took him to the hospital he would have died on the spot because he could not talk or open his mouth when he was brought to the hospital.
“At this point I decided to go back home to assess the situation and again reported the matter to  Agwa Police Station, but five minutes later a motorcyclist came to inform me to leave immediately that fighting has broken out at Mgbala and that someone has already been killed and that the youths who are the  supporters of Chief Ohamara are coming to the hospital to kill the task force member and when I reported the matter to the Divisional Police Officer in Mgbala, he advised me to leave immediately because if the youths discover that I was in the station that they  will burn down the place.
“It was the same informant that took me through a track road to Ogbaku where I boarded a bus to Owerri. So, when Eugene Ohamara and his supporters learnt that I have left the police station they went straight to my house and looted my property. When I reported the destruction of my house to the police, the DPO assigned six armed policemen to accompany me to my house in order to assess the damage, but when we got there over 200 youths were already laying in wait for me and immediately they saw the police Hilux van stopp at the gate of my house they surrounded us and threaten to kill me and immediately attacked the police Hilux van with sticks and it was by sheer luck that we were able to escape and this was even when the policemen were armed, but they could not shoot or even arrest anybody. It was then it dawned on me that not even the police can secure my life and that of the members of my family”.
The embattled monarch disclosed that after the looting of his property he wrote a petition to Zone 9 Police Umuahia over the threat to his life, saying that the police initially arrested three of the suspects, but was surprised when police officers from Abuja led by one Superintendent Abba ordered their release.
He alleged that the same youths who were released by the police , boasting that they are “Boko  Haram” boys.
He said he also wrote another petition on the activities of the “Boko Haram” boys to the state police headquarters as they attacked his supporters while on their way to collect their PVCs during the April general elections, saying that the police again did not do anything.
“When the police appeared to have compromised I decided to petition the state governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, who called a stakeholders meeting at the Government House, where he ordered the security agencies to arrest the boys who have been terrorizing the community and it was then that the army arrested about 13 persons and after their investigations seven of those arrested were released while the remaining six were promptly detained by the police.
“One of the suspects even made a confessional statement to the police that they have over 40 arms and how they also killed three of my supporters and where they had buried them. But curiously the same policemen from Abuja later released the same person who had made a confessional statement at the Imo Police Command and ordered that I be detained and when I was released the next day I was asked to come to Abuja on a certain date.
“When we got to Abuja the CP in charge of the case interviewed all of us and asked us to make peace, which I accepted, but Eugene  Ohamara and his supporters refused to attend any of the peace meetings rather they said that I will be charged to court.”
But Chief Ohamara who has already proclaimed himself the Eze-elect of the community blamed Governor Okorocha for the Ezeship crisis that has been rocking the community in the last one year.
He told Oriental News that it was not the turn of the village of Umuezali from where Sir Uba comes from to produce the next Eze of Mgbala Agwa, saying that instead of following the constitution of the community Okorocha decided to use the ballot to determine who becomes the new monarch of the community against the wishes of the majority of the people.
Ohamara also alleged that the monarch was chased out of the community by the people because had committed murder.
His words: “It is not the turn of the village of Umuezeali from where Blaise Uba comes from to produce the next Eze. Round One has taken its turn and when Eze Charles Ukwu died, it became the turn of Round Two to produce the next Eze and my village is the first and that of Blaise Uba is the second, but because of political manipulations  which never took the constitution of the community into consideration, which clearly stipulated that when it is the turn of any Round to produce the Eze , the first village from that Round will have to present candidates for the Ezeship. But in this case Governor Okorocha who was presented with the constitution of the community disregarded it and then decided to use ballot”.
Chief Ohamara who insisted that he remains the Eze-elect by the popular choice of the community alleged that Sir Uba was not qualified to be the paramount ruler of the community because of his track record.
“Blaise Uba was not the choice of the people and besides he is not qualified to be the Eze and so the youths chased him out of the community  and we are still in court with him,” he alleged.
He insisted that the only solution to the crisis was for Sir Uba to relinquish the throne, adding that as long as he continues to lay claim to the throne that there would be no peace in the community.
By  GEORGE ONYEJIUWA