Anambra community completes screening to choose a king.
Lead by Chinonye Ononye, the Okuzu Oba community’s Igweship Electoral Committee in the Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State has completed its screening process for the four candidates running for the township kingship.
Only two of the four individuals—Chief Joseph Ejiofor and Chief Samuel Odinamadu, Ikeora Idemili—were screened; Nze Ikechukwu Abafo was not present.
Even though he was physically there, Chinedu Emelobe, Onwa Oba, chose not to participate, stating that the Oba Patriotic Union, the “superior body,” supersedes all other meetings and organizations and that he had received a letter from them for discussion.
One of the candidates, Ejiofor, spoke about the screening process on Tuesday. He said it was successful and urged the committee to keep up the good work in ensuring a free, fair, and credible primary election that will ultimately result in the election of the Igweship candidate from Okuzu Akanato Quarters who will represent the interests of the people.
Anambra community completes screening to choose a king.
“Let the best candidate who will lead us emerge; I can’t do it; the screening committee is doing a great job,” he exclaimed.
The other candidate, Odinamadu, also acknowledged the success of the screening process and thanked the electoral commission for their efforts to advance the community.
Odinammadu bemoaned the loss of many things that the people of Oba town had suffered due to the absence of a monarch, but he also predicted that a new ruler who would act in the best interests of the people would come to power with God on their side.
“I received a notice (letter) from the Civic Center concerning the igweship issue, so we should go first to President General,” stated Emelobe, who chose not to participate. Second, there should be thirteen members on the screening committee, but there are only roughly five in this instance. Thirdly, I need to see where in the constitution the screening process is mentioned. The Oba Progressives Union delegates who are supposed to be in the electoral committee are not present.
Which constitutional provision is being used to screen the candidates, then? All other meetings and groups are superseded by OPU meetings. We now know a date for the candidate screening after hearing from OPU because it relates to the same internship issue.
Emelobe arrived very late, but the Chairman of the electoral/screening committee, Ononye, responded by telling him that the committee was following the directives of the Okuzu Improvement Union members. He insisted that the “superior” union, which was aware of the screening process, had not written to the electoral committee or notified them, asking that the screening process be halted or postponed until the next OPU meeting.
He stated, “Up until Emelobe sent two proxies and we informed them that the screening is not by proxy, but rather the physical appearance of the igweship aspirant, we were having a smooth screening exercise. Subsequently, Emelobe showed up. Unlike the other participants, he didn’t gently submit himself for screening; instead, he began interrogating us to make it seem as though we were inexperienced. It just so happened that he was the final participant to accept our invitation for screening, but he declined.
“In addition, nine of the 13 members are present now—seven of whom are present right now. One member arrived and left owing to illness, while another called to request permission to miss work.
Ononye, however, declared the exercise to be rather successful and revealed that the primary election date will be announced when it is appropriate.
Anambra community completes screening to choose a king.
Source: The Punch Newspaper
