Furore in Enugu comunity over suspension of vigilante chairman
The Imufu autonomous community in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State is a rather remote and serene area. But this is reportedly being disturbed following the furore, among the indigenes over the suspension of Neighbourhood Watch chairman, Augustine Eze.
There are also reports of a call for the removal of the community’s traditional ruler Igwe Remigius Attah.
South East Trust gathered that the Council of Elders has already passed “a vote of no confidence,” on the ruler while the youths carried out a peaceful protest asking government to remove him.
Briefing newsmen at the palace of the Spiritual Leader of the community, the oldest man and Onyishi Imufu, Oluoha Mamah Apeh, alongside other members of the elders council, said Igwe Remigius Attah would henceforth be regarded as an outsider in the community except he showed remorse for his anti-people activities.
Oluoha Mamah Apeh said: “We are on our own and Igwe should be on his own with his cohorts. We would be holding our own community meetings and he should be holding his own because he doesn’t want to be one of us. He should not be locking up our sons in the police stations on trumped up charges. We have passed a vote of no confidence on him.”
He accused Igwe Attah of ruling the community as his private property, claiming that there had been no lasting peace in the past 11 years since his emergence in controversial circumstances.
He explained that the Elders’ Council and other stakeholders had been managing the matter until the Igwe decided to impose a chairman of the Neighbourhood Watch on the people.
“Imufu is a peaceful community. The Igwe came to my palace during one of the regular meetings of the council of elders to complain that the suspended chairman of the Neighbourhood Watch, Augustine Eze, is not competent and that he had not been transparent in his handling of money and other issues affecting the neighbourhood watch. All of the elders deliberated on the matter and invited Augustine Eze to defend the allegations leveled against him by the Igwe, but Eze refused to defend himself. He told us that he was not accountable to the community but the Governor.
“The Igwe, President General of the Town Union, the chairmen of neighbourhood watch at both Enugu and Igboeze North and security agencies were here when we suspended him and wrote letters to appropriate authorities in that regard.
“We also asked his deputy, Augustine Iyidah to act in his position while the community investigated the suspended chairman. Augustine Iyidah is the vice chairman of the neighbourhood watch, so it was proper for him to act in the absence of the chairman.
“However, the next thing we saw was that Remigius went back to Augustine Eze and both reported the acting chairman and 16 other members of the vigilante group to the police saying they are impersonators. So, who are they impersonating?
“These are people who are married with wives and children and providing free services to us. He did not consult the elders, the Town Union President or any of the stakeholders, because he thinks he is the sole administrator of Imufu, and we then decided to cry aloud so that the Governor of Enugu State, His Excellency, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi will hear our cries and save us from the tyranny of Remigius Attah.
“In fact, the trouble started when the monarch, Igwe Remigius Attah, defied the order issued by the state governor, which asked each community to consult key stakeholders before selecting the members of the vigilante group. Attah, instead, singlehandedly selected those alleged to be his cronies and men of questionable characters and imposed them on the community.”
However, the embattled traditional ruler Igwe Remigius Attah, while reacting to the development, said he was being attacked because he refused to endorse the suspension of Mr. Eze as well as to sign the list of vigilante brought to him by Elders’ Council because he had already endorsed the one brought by the suspended chairman as he was the one recognized by the government.
Also, the said suspended Chairman, Augustine Eze in his reaction, said he was not aware of his suspension, stressing that only the state government, and not his community, has the power to remove or discipline him over alleged misdeed.
The eldest man further explained that the monarch was at the meeting where the community agreed to the governor’s order to consult the critical stakeholders before selecting the members of the vigilante group.