*Wants NBA Warri Branch Chairman sanctioned
By Jake Aimuan
Amid raging controversy around the traditional process of installing a new successor to the throne of Olu of Warri, an Itsekiri group has alleged a deliberate plot to truncate installation of the Olu-designate, Prince Emiko.
The Itsekiri group, the Movement for the Protection of Iwere Homeland Development and History (MPIHDH), has petitioned the President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Akpata Olumide, calling for the sanctioning of the NBA Warri branch chairman, Chief Emmanuel Uti for alleged false alarm and fabrication about last Thursday’s reported court invasion in Warri.
The group alleged that Chief Uti and the NBA Warri Branch’s reaction to the recent invasion of the Warri High Court was exaggerated and tainted by outright fabrications and deliberately skewed to mislead the general public, security agencies and the Delta State Government.
Signed by the MPIHDH National President and one of its leaders, Comrade Aderojor Ologhojoba James and Comrade Lucky Ayomike Okonedo, respectively, the petition faulted the press release by the NBA Warri on the said court invasion, claiming that it was “intentionally and wickedly laced with lies, hearsays, unsubstantiated claims, fake news, with a deliberate intent to mislead the general public, security agents, the Delta State government.”
The MPIHDH accused the NBA branch chairman of using his official position to advance what it called a covert agenda to “truncate” the ongoing burial rites of Ogiame Ikenwoli, as well as the forthcoming coronation activities for the Olu-designate.
The group wondered why the NBA Warri chairman would label as “armed thilugs and hoodlums” respected “Itsekiri sons and daughters, old men and women”, who embarked on a peaceful protest to the court in Warri.
The letter to NBA President, Akpata, readb in part, “He (NBA Warri Chairman) should be adequately sanctioned for intentionally misinforming the general public about what transpired in the court on that fateful day.
“He has by his action proven, without any shadow of doubt, that he is a serial liar, a busy-body and a meddlesome interloper who have decided to pervert the cause of justice.”
The group, however, said that the Itsekiri people will continue to attend future court proceedings as law-abiding citizens and stakeholders in the affairs of the Iwere (Itsekiri) kingdom.
The Itsekiri people will not be discouraged from “peacefully attending subsequent court proceedings whose outcomes is germane to their collective interest as a people and bonafide citizens of Nigeria”.
In its reaction to the court incident last week, the NBA Warri Branch had, via a statement by its chairman, called for security beefup especially around courts premises to stem future court invasions and “desecration of its hallowed chambers”, calling for the perpetrators of the act to be brought to book.
Indications that the succession dispute in the Itsekiri kingdom is far from over emerged last week with the absence from the final passage rites for late Olu Ikenwoli of some prominent Itsekiri traditional title holders, including Chief Thomas Ereyitomi and Chief Ayiri Emami, who has been at daggersdrawn with other members of the Warri Council of Chiefs since news of the demise of the Itsekiri monarch filtered into the public domain late last year.
