Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State has issued a certificate of recognition to John Nweke as the traditional ruler of Nsugbe Community in Anambra East Local Government Area of the state, despite a court order barring his purported election.
Mr Soludo issued the certificate of recognition to Mr Nweke on Tuesday after he reportedly emerged as the traditional ruler of the community in a controversial election on Sunday that was barred by an order of a state high court in Anambra.
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“Respectfully, Barrister John Nzekwesili Nweke is now officially the Igwe (traditional ruler) of Nsugbe,” the governor declared during a meeting with traditional rulers in the state at the Government House on Tuesday.
He subsequently presented him with a certificate of recognition.
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Mr Nweke is the elder brother of Tobechukwu Nweke, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and the Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General of Anambra State.
Tension in the community
Tension had been high in Nsugbe Community since Saturday, following an alleged plot by some individuals to hold the election on Sunday.
A group known as Concerned Indigenes and Stakeholders in Nsugbe, in a petition to President Bola Tinubu on Saturday, accused the Anambra State Commissioner for Local Government and Community Matters, Vincent Ezeaka, and the attorney-general of engaging in “unlawful and contemptuous actions” to hold the election barred by the court.
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The petition was signed by at least 13 members of the group.
Some of the individuals who signed the petition were the Anambra North Senator, Tony Nwoye; a former senator from the district, Alphonsus Igbeke; and the Secretary General, Nsugbe Development Union, Uzoechina Benedict.
The group told Mr Tinubu that the dispute stemmed from a contention over the mode of selecting the next traditional ruler of the community, with some individuals favouring a delegate system while others backed universal adult suffrage in Ivite Quarter in Nsugbe, the section of the community favoured by a zoning arrangement to produce the traditional ruler.
They stressed that parties opposed to the delegate system filed a lawsuit before the High Court of Anambra State, Awka Judicial Division, on 8 July, prompting Justice Jude Obiora to grant an interlocutory injunction on 5 August against the election initially scheduled for 8 August.
Attached to the petition was a copy of the court ruling that stopped the election from being conducted in the community.
According to the document, the court ordered all parties to maintain the status quo existing as at 8 July, being the date on which the substantive suit was filed, pending “its amicable or judicial determination.”
“For the avoidance of doubt, the status quo hereby ordered means that: (a) no party, whether by himself, his agents, servants, privies or any person acting on his authority or any entity howsoever described, shall organise, conduct, supervise, conclude or give effect to any election or selection of the next Igwe (traditional ruler) of Nsugbe from Ivite Quarter on Saturday the 8th day of August, 2026 and pending the determination of this suit,” the court ruled.
The Concerned Indigenes and Stakeholders in Nsugbe alleged that, despite the court order, Mr Ezeaka purportedly suspended the elected executive of the Nsugbe Development Union on 28 August and installed a caretaker committee in its place, “with an express mandate to conduct the selection of the Igwe Nsugbe.”
The group further raised an alarm that the officials had plotted to organise the election on Sunday, 30 August, in violation of the court order.
It then appealed to Mr Tinubu to halt the planned election in contravention of the court order and d investigate the commissioner’s suspension of the Nsughe Development Union executive and the constitution of a caretaker committee during the pendency of the court order.
The group also asked the president to look into the alleged conflict of interest arising from the attorney-general’s “familial and political interest” in the matter.
Official denies complicity
The Commissioner for Local Government and Community Matters, Mr Ezeaka, did not respond to calls seeking his comments.
When contacted on Sunday afternoon while the exercise was being organised, the Attorney-General of Anambra State, Mr Tobechukwu, told PREMIUM TIMES that he had no hands in the conduct of the election.
“I have not been involved in this process from the beginning to the end. I have been minding my business, discharging my duties as the attorney-general of the state.
“But Senator Tony (Nwoye) wants to use blackmail to gain political points by always accusing me of interfering in the process,” he said.
The commissioner said that, as an indigene of Nsugbe, he receives information about happenings in the community but does not play any role in the election.
He said he knows that the town union and the electoral committee had fixed the elections for 8 August and agreed that the mode of election should be by the delegate system, which was opposed by Mr Nwoye and other members of his group.
The commissioner said the Anambra State Government approved the decision of the town union and electoral committee as forwarded to the government by the president-general of the community.
He said that to maintain peace and in light of the contest against the delegate system, the Commissioner for Local Government and Community Matters, Mr Ezeaka, issued a letter suspending the town union and establishing a caretaker committee for the community.
According to him, the caretaker committee later met with some stakeholders in the community, reconciled the warring parties, and resolved the disagreement over the mode of election in favour of the universal adult suffrage for Ivite Quarter proposed by Mr Nwoye and his group.
PREMIUM TIMES understands that the zoning arrangement favoured Ivite Quarter because the two other quarters in the community – Ezi and Ikenga – had previously produced the community’s traditional ruler.
The justice commissioner maintained that Mr Nwoye is not from Ivite Quarter, where the leadership position was zoned and ought not to challenge the mode of election.
He also claimed that he was unaware of the court ruling barring the conduct of the 30 August election.
“If you look at the order of the court, the election the court stopped was the election for 8 August being organised by the town union and that (electoral) committee.
“That’s not the election that they are holding now,” the attorney-general said as at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.
Cancelled election?
PREMIUM TIMES gathered that the court-barred election was disrupted after some community members held protests at the election venue on Sunday, challenging the conduct of the court-barred exercise.
This newspaper saw hundreds of community members shouting “no election,” while security operatives fired tear gas canisters at them.
When contacted, Mr Nwoye claimed the attorney-general mobilised over 100 members of the Agunachamba vigilante group to intimidate and harass the innocent Nsugbe indigenes who trooped out to challenge the conduct of the court-barred election.
“This is victory for constitutional democracy and rule of law,” he said of the protest by the indigenes.
The NTA Onitsha reported on Sunday that the election was subsequently stopped by a team of police operatives led by Ibrahim Ezekiel, an assistant commissioner of police in Anambra State, following the chaos and protest.
However, it was gathered that the organisers of the election later relocated to the Anambra East Local Government Headquarters in Otuocha, a neighbouring community, where they held the exercise.
The Anambra State attorney-general defended the relocation to another community, saying the change of venue became necessary after Mr Nwoye and his group allegedly invaded the original venue with thugs.
“He went there with thugs, threatened to disrupt the process. The security people were there. They tried to manage the situation, but no way.
“So, the caretaker committee decided to leave to avoid breakdown of law and order, and they have now relocated to a different venue,” he said.
READ ALSO: Anambra community cries to Tinubu, Soludo over planned demolition of houses for power project
Ezeaka speaks
PREMIUM TIMES, on Wednesday, contacted Christian Aburime, the spokesperson to Mr Soludo, and asked why the governor recognised the traditional ruler despite the court order stopping the controversial exercise through which he emerged.
Mr Aburime asked our reporter to contact Mr Ezeaka for details.
When contacted, Mr Ezeaka argued that the state government was not a party to the suit and that the court order did not prevent the government from establishing the committee to conduct an election.
The local government commissioner claimed that he or the government did not take part in the election, even as he admitted that the government authorised the exercise after receiving a report that the dispute in the community had been resolved.
“The caretaker committee we set up wrote back saying that they have made peace in their community. We said, ‘if you have settled, then go ahead and hold your election,’ and they did,” he said.
When asked if the settlement of the dispute effectively invalidates the court order, the official claimed the order was against the town union executive, not the state government.
Mr Ezeaka refused to respond to subsequent questions about the court order violation.
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