The accusation and counter accusations trailing the recent demonstration of widows in Owerri, Imo state capital and allegations of attack on them by suspected agents of the government and APC is taking another dimension.
The skirmishes between the state government and minister of state for education, Prof Viola Onwuliri have extended to traditional rulers in the state who have started singing different tunes.
Only last Tuesday, a group of monarchs said to be acting on the instruction of the state government gathered at the Govt House/Whetheral Road Roundabout to pray in order to cleanse the state over the alleged acts of the widows who they accused of carrying a coffin.
Even as the issue of using coffin has become a subject of controversy in the matter, as the widows who protested denied it claiming that it was mere blackmail to tarnish their image, royal fathers in the state are now at crossfire over the matter.
The differences among the monarchs in the state have come to the open with various camps issuing divergent views affecting the unity of Ndi Eze Imo.
According to a press statement issued by the Mbaise Council Traditional Rulers signed by Eze Desmond Oguguo and Eze R.A. Amadi, for and on behalf of the monarchs, it condemned the attack meted to Onwuliri. The Mbaise monarchs stated that their investigations revealed that the women never went beyond the Okigwe road/Whetheral road roundabout as they were attacked by thugs while they were assembling at the Okigwe road park waiting for other widows to join the demonstration. The monarchs doubted the story of mock coffin by asking why TV and newspapers never showed the said coffin.
According to them “if it is a fact that the women carried a mock coffin which was alleged to have been deposited at the Govt House, why did the newspapers and TV not show it, or is it only the Govt House officials who developed a third eye to see the coffin. To the traditional rulers of Mbaise, this is a mere hoax”.
While condemning persons whose targets are geared towards tarnishing the image of the minister another statement from Eze Cletus Ilomuanya as chairman, Imo State Council of Traditional Rulers warned against any meeting convened for the purposes of gathering to cleanse the land or denigration of Prof Onwuliri irrespective of the warnings, Eze Chidume Okoro, the Deputy chairman of Ndi Eze, in charge of Owerri zone led a handful of monarchs to the said exercise. Their action has further factionalised the already polarized Imo state traditional rulers council.
However, conspicuously absent in the said exercise undertaken by Owerri zone traditional rulers is Eze Emmanuel Njemanze, Owerri Nchi Ise, who by custom is the custodian of traditional institution of Owerri, the state capital.
Njemanze, the Ozuruigbo the V, who is the only monarch with a palace in the state capital was nowhere near the venue of the said prayers. Reasons not known. As at the time of this report.
