Court sacks Anambra monarch
An Anambra State high court sitting in Ogidi has sacked the traditional ruler of Alor community in Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State, Igwe Mac Anthony Okonkwo.
The order followed a counter-claim filed by the second defendant/counterclaimant, Chief Uzoma Igbonwa, through his lawyer, Bona Oraekwe, challenging the recognition and certification of Okonkwo as the traditional ruler of Alor (Ezedioramma III) since 2014 by the state government.
Okonkwo and two others, Frank Nwabufo Okoye and Ifenna Okafor, had in a suit No: HID/354/2019 dragged the Incorporated Trustees of Alor Peoples Assembly (APA) and Igbonwa to the court seeking a declaration that the APA registered under Part C. of Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) of 1990 is not a town union government and as such cannot perform the functions and duties of Alor Peoples Convention (APC) which is the authentic town union government for the Alor people.
The plaintiff also sought a declaration of the court that the purported change of name of the APC to APA at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) by the defendants was null and void.
He asked the court, among other reliefs, to restrain the APA from acting as APC and from holding parallel meetings of the Alor Annual General Assembly comprising of all adult males and females of Alor extraction in any way whatsoever.
However, the court presided over by Justice Pete Obiorah, while delivering judgement, ordered Okonkwo to forthwith desist from occupying or using the palace of the Obi Eze Agbudugbu (the original ancestral abode of Alor people).
He directed that Igbonwa as the president general of APC elected in compliance with a judgement delivered on February 5, 2019, in conjunction with the Regency Council of Alor, should commence the process of filling the vacant stool of Igwe of Alor in accordance with the constitution of APC 2011.
“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 constitution of APC 2011 which replaced the constitution of APC 1992 and traditional rulers law of Anambra State, 2007 or any other law relating to traditional rulers,” the judge held.