A royal father, Igwe Kenneth Onyia of Nsude Community of Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State, is dead.
The royal father died two weeks after his community resolved to dethrone him.
The decision was taken at the community’s annual general meeting held on December 27, 2020.
They said the seven-year reign of Igwe Onyia was marked by crises and unnecessary controversies.
The meeting, which was held at St. Mark’s Catholic Church field, Nsude was attended by the town’s prominent leaders and members of the Igwe-in-Council.
Among the issues the community held against the Igwe are his refusal to account for the N5 million development fund he received from the Enugu State Government and his insistence on maintaining a parallel security outfit rather than the government-funded Neighborhood Watch.
Earlier in 2020, after his preferred candidate lost the town Union’s president general election, the Igwe petitioned the state government to withhold recognition for the winner. When the government eventually certified the election and recognized the town union executives after six months, he instituted a court case against the town union and the state government.
It was gathered that the Chairman of Udi Local Government, Paschal Agu, intervened by setting up a high-powered investigative panel to look into the crises in Nsude.
In its report, the panel headed by Igwe Harold Onuoha of Eke, blamed Onyia for being in the centre of several crises in his community.
The committee, which also had Igwe CC Njeze of Abor as member, and Collins Amalu as Secretary, recommended that Igwe Onyia should apologise to his people, which he never did.
The Secretary of the Igwe-In-Council, Nze Osmond Udoji, in a gathering, addressed the people and said he could not explain Igwe’s absence at the meeting.
In their decision, they said Onyia’s continued stay on the traditional stool has become an impediment to peace and the progress of Nsude.
They resolved to unanimously remove the Igwe and mandated the President-General of Nsude Development Union, Nick Eneje, to initiate the process of getting the state government to withdraw the certificate of recognition issued to him in 2013.
To them, the seven-year reign of Igwe Onyia has been marked by crises and unnecessary controversies.
The meeting was attended by the town’s prominent leaders, chairmen of the various villages and members of the Igwe-in-Council.
Nsude is the only community where the old community vigilante was not disbanded as they still operate under the Igwe’s directives.
Last May, a disagreement involving the parallel security outfits resulted in a shooting incident.
