The Obibi Uratta Community in Owerri North Council Area of Imo State has been thrown into confusion following the alleged dethronement of the traditional ruler of the community, Eze Amaobi Uwaleke, by the state governor, Hope Uzodimma.
Afriupdate News gathered Uwaleke, the Obilobi of Uratta Ancient Kingdom was accorded a letter of recognition and presented with a staff of office by the former governor of the state, Senator Rochas Okorocha.
Uzodimma had on Friday 14th, February presented staff of office to 51 newly recognised traditional rulers in the state who either filled the vacuum created by the demise of some traditional rulers or were newly installed by their communities during which he replaced some with new ones.
However, indigenes of the Obibi Uratta who expressed shock over the alleged sacking of their monarch by the state government have stuck tenaciously to the ezeship stool of the deposed monarch with a vow never to have any business to do with the purported new monarch, Boniface Ariri.
![[FILES] IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu in court](https://www.afriupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Nnamdi-Kanu-in-Court-120x86.jpg "IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu fails to regain freedom at Supreme Court 1")
According to reports, scores of his subjects including cabinet chiefs, Chairman of Oha Uratta Supreme Council, and other titleholders were seen holding a brief meeting.
They said that they would defend the sacredness of the stool with the last of their blood.
Reacting to the development, Eze Uwaleke who received staff of office and a letter of recognition on the 14th of August 2018 from the defunct Rochas Okorocha administration as the Eze Udo IV of the community, dismissed his dethronement as mere rumour, baseless, null, and void and of no effect.
“The news of my dethronement is a mere rumour because I have not received any letter or a telephone call from the state government informing me that I am no longer the Eze of my people”
Uwaleke argued that it is an established Igbo tradition and custom that the people should be allowed to choose who becomes their traditional ruler and present same to the government for recognition as against the government’s intervention.
According to him, the community which was created in 1978 and since remained in peace, unity and tranquility was later riddled with unnecessary hullabaloo by some reactionary forces who brought pressure to bear on the Owerri North Local Government to conduct a plebiscite but who surprisingly failed to face the exercise.
“I still maintain, I do not think that it was Governor Hope Uzodimma who did this and so it is rumour because for now, nobody has asked me to return or drop my staff of office, no statement or press release on this
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