Widow's Protest: Imo Monarchs on Warpath Over Gov, Minister As Women Vow To Unseat Okorocha

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 yet known as at the time of this report.
--Trumpeta