By Ola Ajayi
For as long as 17 years, it has been a sort of cemetery quiet for the three warring groups battling the title of Eze Ndigbo of Oyo State when the Igbo Community Development Association "delegated" Dr. Alex Anozie. The three groups were driven by Dr. Alex Anozie, Chief James Nduka Oramadike and Chief Alloy Obi.
Gov Ajimobi
Gov Ajimobi
Each of them had been making a case for the title and this has prompted genuine fights in court. However, the fight for acknowledgment died down in a matter of seconds before the 2015 general decision as the groups met up to rustle up backing for the previous president at Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, all gatherings later pulled back into their homes, honed their swords and tidied their reinforcement for new emergency.
Of the three, Dr. Anozie has been shaking a court judgment by Justice Mashud Abbas of Oyo State High Court on February 18, 2014 which remembered him as the legitimate holder of the title. The court pronounced that Anozie is the subsisting Eze Ndigbo of Ibadanland and Oyo State, having been equitably chosen and sworn-in into office by the Igbo Community Development Association in 1997 on the power of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo in 2000.
As he drew closer the state High Court, he looked for an assertion that all strides taken by Chief Alloy Obi and his gathering who were guaranteeing the title of Onyendu Ndigbo were in opposition to Igbo traditions and custom, and the constitution of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and along these lines invalid and void, and in this manner looked for a request of the court putting aside all demonstrations and ventures by the respondents towards choice and proposed establishment of Chief Obi as the Onyendu Ndigbo of Ibadan and Oyo State.
In 2009, the emergency came to the crescendo as the individuals who were thoughtful to Chief Obi professedly met up and asserted to have uprooted Anozie. The petitioner likewise looked for a directive controlling the respondents whether without anyone else, their workers or specialists, from introducing Obi as Onyendu, and a request of order limiting Chief Obi from declaring or parading himself as the Onyendu Ndigbo of Ibadan and Oyo State.
Be that as it may, in the wake of listening to the certainties and circumstances of the case as introduced by insight to both concerned gatherings, the court distinguished a few issues for determination.
The third issue recognized for determination was whether Eze Anozie having been uprooted as the Ezendigbo of Ibadan and Oyo State in 2009 had the privilege to challenge the race and introduction of Chief Obi as the Onyendu of Ibadan and Oyo State. Every one of these issues were, in any case, determined by the court for Anozie, after which the judge proceeded to concede the alleviation looked for by the petitioner.
While allowing the petitions to God of the inquirer, the court decided that there must be one Onyendu Ndigbo for one group, and that the petitioner is the one for Oyo, having been appropriately so broadcasted by the Igbo group in Oyo State in a report issued on September 30, 2000.
The court likewise proclaimed that all demonstrations and steps taken towards the determination of Chief Obi were in opposition to the Igbo traditions and convention and the constitution of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and along these lines conceded a request putting aside every one of the strides and acts which prompted Obi's implied choice as the Onyendu.
At long last, the court conceded a directive limiting the respondents, whether without anyone else's input, their operators or hirelings from introducing Obi as Onyendu of Ibadan and Oyo State, and the one controlling Obi from parading himself accordingly.
While talking with Vanguard yesterday in a phone meeting, Dr. Anozie said similarly as he is worried, subsequent to the court has requested alternate gatherings to stop from parading themselves, anyone elevating them to mock the court judgment is not a companion of the nation.
"Anyone I am alluding to could be radio, TV, government and even me. I learnt that the other side has requested the judgment of the State High Court, they ought to sit tight for the result of the bid. It ought to additionally be noticed that when you bid a judgment of a lower court, it doesn't mean the judgment no more subsists. It subsists until the redrafting court says something else. Actually severe yet it regards come clean. The two of us in the emergency exhibited our confirmations under the steady gaze of the court and the court having measured the proofs and claimed me as the holder of the title," he said.
As Anozie is slugging it out with his adversaries in the state, the national initiative is additionally giving him silver hair. As of late, his camp blamed Ohaneze national initiative for actuating emergency in the state. It called the consideration of the national body to the way that the court "requested everything about the Igbo General Assembly (IGA), including their demonstrations, steps taken by the gathering and the South-East Traditional Rulers invalid and void, and limited Chief Aloy Obi from parading himself as the Onyendu Ndigbo of Ibadan and Oyo state.".
His gathering charged that the late visit by "one individual who called himself the Deputy President of the Ohaneze Worldwide, by name Ogochukwu Onyema", who professedly said something that disintegrated the court administering, and guaranteed to have talked for the benefit of the Ohaneze national body.
"On the off chance that truly they are the ones who sent one Ogochukwu Onyema to Ibadan on fifteenth of August, 2015, to come and say all what he had said, then they have to take alert . We are mindful peace-adoring subjects of Nigeria who such a great amount of have confidence in the principle of law, and that is the reason we endured such a variety of incitements since numerous years now, and we have kept on permitting the legal to offer us some assistance with sorting things out gently. Oyo state is tranquil and we need it to stay serene".
"We know about the shenanigans of the very individual who has been the mind behind every one of these issues following every one of these years; he would need to drag everyone that matters into this contention, including the South-East Traditional Rulers and Ohaneze national body, whom we anticipated that would assume a supported protective part in this issue.", they said.
Vanguard learnt that the judgment of the High Court has been requested and pending the determination of the suit, the last has not been caught wind of the emergency.