The Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Community Affairs, Mr. Collins Nwabunwanne has explained that the ongoing rattle in Ifitedunu, Dunukofia Council Area is part of effort by a stakeholder who feels he owns the community, to sabotage government into satisfying his whims and caprices.
Commissioner Nwabunwanne who stated this while reacting to claims in a section of the media where one Chief Vincent Udobi called for his sack, stressed that no single individual is bigger than government, as such, cannot dictate to her.
The Commissioner who explained that when it comes to affairs in Anambra communities, government through the Ministry has a role to effect checks and controls, to ensure peace and stability, pointing out that the Soludo-led administration cannot be sabotaged or cajoled into taking action that is not in the interest of a greater number of the state citizenry, particularly members of Ifitedunu community.
While dismissing the claims made by Chief Udobi as a figment of his imagination, the Commissioner emphasized that Chief Uchenna Nwoye remains the President General of Ifitedunu unless he is removed by the people through the process stipulated by the constitution of the Community.
Said the Commissioner; "in today's world, rumors and false stories can spread quickly, especially with the power of social media. These stories; though easy to conjure, can harm the reputation of individuals, particularly those who hold important positions in society.
"It is not uncommon for someone to resort to a campaign of calumny, which refers to the deliberate spreading of false information about someone with the intention of damaging their reputation.
"In Governor Chukwuma Soludo-led administration, public interest is our top priority.
"When we came onboard, almost all the communities in the state were caretakers; everybody assumed to be a warlord, and would want to be the person that will take the decision on behalf of their Communities.
"We decided to reconcile all the communities, to give back power to the people, to allow them to elect their leaders by their constitution.
"There was a caretaker in Ifitedunu. But the issue is that we had announced that we no longer wanted a caretaker, eventhough we are mindful of the fact that there are some communities that stipulated when to conduct community elections in their constitution. So, what we did was to allow every community to get to that point and we conducted their elections", the Commissioner explained.
Commissioner Nwabunwanne further noted that in December, 2022 alone, over eighty elections were conducted across communities in the state, pointing out that as at today, they had conducted more than one hundred elections, following the constitutions of those communities.
"When the tenure of the caretaker committee in Ifitedunu expired, they came for renewal and we said no, that we needed to go for election, which we did.
"Before then, there was a petition from the Traditional Ruler and the PG, alleging that he was unlawfully removed from office. We went to the file, and discovered that no single report was made before his removal from the office. We investigated further and discovered that what he was saying had some merits, alongside what the traditional ruler said.
"We then reached out to select stakeholders in the community. In fact, they conducted the election.
"We also reached out to the other party but they refused all entreaties.
The Commissioner emphasized that the government reinstated Chief Nwoye following the committee report, as a result of which peace returned to Ifitedunu and appreciations have been flowing in, commending Governor Soludo ever since.
He said however, that to his chagrin, criminal charges were eventually leveled against Chief Nwoye.
"This part is not really the business of the Ministry. Our stand is that if anybody has a criminal charge, they should face it. We are aware that a judgement was obtained where the PG was convicted of cyber crime, to which the PG already appealed.
"According to the constitution of Ifitedunu community, when something like this happens, you call a general assembly, where the two third majority of members of the community would vote him out based on the offence; and the general assembly which is always done at fourth year of every December, should be convoked by the Traditional Ruler or the PG.
"They had already declared another person PG before writing my office. This is an afront to government. They did not even follow the process of removal as stipulated in the constitution of Ifitedunu", the Commissioner maintained.
"This process was flagrantly flouted and we will not support such illegality that is not in the best interest of the masses"; concluded the Commissioner.
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