Kingship clash splits Delta community

ENHWE—AFTER over three months of intrigues over who would emerge as the traditional ruler of the Enhwe Kingdom, Isoko South Local Government Area, Delta State, the State Government, last Thursday, presented staff of office to a former member of the House of Representatives, Anthony Efekodha, Ejuzi II, as the Ovie, sparking protest from a segment of the monarchy. Deputy Governor of the state, Barrister (Deacon) Kingsley Otuaro, while presenting the staff of office to the monarch, noted that the traditional ruler is a symbol of the people’s culture, tradition and value. He advised the traditional ruler to exclude all forms of sectionalism, favouritism, partiality and discrimination from his day- to -day administration of the kingdom, saying: “With the benefit and advantage of your background, you already know that your achievement depends largely on the quality of cooperation, understanding and good will of the generality of your people. I will count on your relentless effort to sustain peace and security of both lives and property in your domain for the good of all.” HRM Anthony Efekhoda In his remarks, the monarch noted that a considerable number of kings, who had administered the kingdom in the past had made frantic efforts for presentation of staff of office, but to no avail, adding: “That this is happening in my time as a sitting king is not by my power, but an act of divine intervention by Almighty God.” Machination: NDV gathered that the kingship of the clan, which is said to have spanned over 700 years, is rotated between the ‘Evwa’ and ‘Erhebor’ ruling houses in line with the succession law of the clan. The third, the ‘Ogbaide’ royal family, is said to be charged with the responsibility of crowning the Ovie and mounting of ‘Eri-Ivie’ shrine, the Ovie’s emblem of authority. However, following the demise in July, 2013, of its former traditional ruler, HRM D. B. Osha, a member of the Evwa ruling house, the kingdom, which ended a three-year regency rulership period on September 6, 2016, by the age-long tradition of the people, had looked towards the direction of the Erhebor ruling house, to nominate and present to it, the Ovie-elect of the clan for crowning and presentation of staff of office by the state government. Anxiety, however, enveloped the kingdom as two members of the Erhebor ruling house, Anthony Efekhodha and Prince Julius Panama insisted that they are the rightful Ovie-elect of the kingdom. I emerged lawfully – HRM Efekodha The kingdom became divided against itself as some of its indigenes and members of the Erhebor ruling house threw their weight behind the candidacy of Efekodha, while others were in support of Panama. Speaking with NDV on the development, HRM Efekodha asserted that the “law of succession to the throne states that when an Ovie dies, there is usually a period of interregnum, a period where there is no traditional ruler, but during that period of three native years, which is two floods, a regent, an ‘Oyorobah’ is appointed, who keeps the ‘obah’ until the emergence of an ovie. “Somehow, these processes were being followed and I have been selected by my Erhebor ruling house. In Enwhe, the crowning is the moulding of ‘Eri-Ivie’ (ovie’s emblem of power); a fetish shrine that is moulded for the new Ovie that is to emerge. And when it is moulded for an Ovie, and he passes on, it dies with him. It is not transferable, so there is so much to do in the process and it has taken me close to nine months to pass through the processes.” Alleging that some persons in the kingdom had been”trying to turn the history” of the kingdom, he said: “they were trying to create new laws that should govern the throne; however, what also further complicated the issues was that the last Ovie that ruled was from Evwa ruling house and when he died, there is an obah fetish, which is supposed to be transferred to my ruling house, they refused to do that. “The other ruling house brought Julius Panama to come and cause trouble in my ruling house. My ruling house, after meeting all the elders advised him to step down for me in a general meeting. When the caucus agreed that he should step down, he refused, then when they reverted to the general meeting, it was also agreed that he should step down for me, he refused. And they now said let us go for election and he ran away. Nobody is using me – Prince Panama Dismissing Efekhoda’s claim, Panama, who denied that he was being used by the Evwa ruling house to cause problem in his ruling house, maintained that he was the rightful Ovie-elect. He is supported by some leaders, including Chief Patrick Okakor and president general Enhwe Kingdom, Comrade Afoke Johnny. Point of view on the matter He said: “When the former king passed away, there was need for someone to succeed him, and this kingship rotates from one gate to the other, because we are from the Erhebor ruling house, so this time we believe that it is the turn of Panama gate in the Erhebor ruling house, that is Ododo, but because Efekhoda has been on ground at Enwhe, he feels he will be the person to occupy the throne, that is why there is friction all over the place.” “Because of that, he factionalized the Erhebor ruling house; half of them are with him and half of them with the entire community are with me; so that is the problem. His point of view on the matter is contrary to the process; you know, these people sometimes want to bend the rule. “His own father is not from the ruling house, it is the mother; so he is making this agitation from his own mother’s point of view and the mother’s side produced a king before, Okolosi, which was their turn to produce Okolosi. After the demise of Okolosi, it went to Evwa, after which it has now come back to Erhebor and it is now the turn of our gate,” he added. We didn’t foist monarch – LG Reacting to allegations in some quarters that he was imposing Efekodha on the kingdom, Chairman of Isoko South Local Government council, Sir Ithiako Ikpokpo, advised the people not to politicize the kingship, saying: “It is God that makes kings, not men.” He said: “Every community has a gazette that guides the selection process. In this case, it is the gazette that we have tried to follow. Unfortunately, those who are accusing me are those who want to bribe me to do the wrong thing. If you look at our records, we are trying to ensure sincerity of purpose; we are trying to follow due process. “The traditional rulers’ council and I, having looked properly at all the issues, decided that Efekhodha was the rightful person to be crowned king. We have also tried to do our best to ensure that people follow the rules; most of the people shouting today are actually interlopers but we are trying to accommodate everybody to follow due process. If an election is carried out and you boycott it; it does not make the election illegal. “The gazette says go and do an election, we asked them to go and get us the candidates; they went, from the reports we had, when they could not reach a consensus, the family asked them to do an election and some persons, from the records we had, they were about 135 people, those people about 97 or so were left and the head of the family said instead of going up and down, they conducted an election; that is the report that we have.”