ASATU Clears air on Anambra Vigilante Law

 

www.odogwublog.com reports that the National President of Anambra State Association of Town Unions, ASATU, Dr. Jude Okolo yesterday cleared the air on the recent feud between traditional rulers and presidents General of various communities in Anambra state with the recently passed Anambra State Vigilante Law.

He made this clarification during an interaction with some journalists in his Government House office yesterday.

Dr. JAP Okolo as he is fondly called informed that the controversial law, which he said, makes traditional rulers the chairman of Community Vigilante Committee and the Presidents-General the secretary created lots of confusion in various communities in the state, even as he blamed the members of the State House of Assembly for the friction.
The Anambra state vigilante law 2014 passed by the State House of Assembly emanated from the Executive and it would be recalled that the National President of ASATU had earlier led his entire members to the Speaker Right Hon Rita Maduagwu to stop the passage of the law which would entrust the security of the communities on the Traditional rulers rather than the President Generals.

He however argued that the presidents-General should have been made the Executive vice-chairmen of the committee as that would keep the status of the traditional rulers sacrosanct, adding that it would have been more productive if the traditional rulers were made ‘ceremonial chairmen’.
In his words ,‘’We proposed an arrangement where the Traditional Ruler becomes the Chairman of the community vigilante committee playing an advisory role only while the President General becomes the administrative head as the Executive Vice Chairman or Secretary. Secondly, both of them will be co-signatories of the community vigilante committee bank account.

 ‘People like vigilante men should not be the kind of people that would be frequenting the palace. It seems as if the traditional rulers didn’t understand that what the PGs were agitating for was to protect the sacred symbol of Igweship, but we, the PGs have given in to the decision of the House of Assembly while envisaging that the law as it is would have a need for revisiting in future”.

Responding to the issue of the agitations for actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra and the unconditional release of Radio Biafra Director, Mr. Nnamdi Kalu by some youths, although, there’s a court injunction to detain him for another ninety (90) days, Dr Okolo who served as the vice-chairman of Old Abakaliki Council Area in Ebonyi State suggested that the issue be handled tactfully.

He advised that effort should be made to bring those involved to a round table dialogue and eschew violence, calling on all Nigerians to learn how to resolve their problems through dialogue.

On the state of federal roads in the south eastern part of Nigeria, Dr Okolo who once served as Special Adviser to Dr. Sam Egwu of Ebonyi State on Political Matters and Special Duties, bemoaned the state of roads and called for the federal government to direct Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA, to commence palliative measures on the roads as the yuletide season approaches.
This he said would minimize the high rate of road carnages on the highways this period.
The ASATU National president who is a medical Doctor by training and President General of  Oraifite community also lamented on the rate at which erosion is ravaging the Anambra state landscape, especially the Nkpor flyover area that has cut off a portion of the federal road.

Dr JAP Okolo further urged the federal government to declare Anambra state a disaster zone, given that the soil is so loose that it gets easily washed off by the rain which, he pointed out has increased in intensity because of on-going climactic changes.
Okolo however advised Anambrarians to learn to provide gardens and spaces where water can peculate into the soil instead of flowing out from their residences, which he identified, as one of the major factors perpetuating the erosion menace in the state.