- Following the crisis rocking Oko community, Orumba-North Local Government Area, over appointment of a representative of the area into the governing council of the Federal Polytechnic located in the community, Anambra State government has sacked the executive members of the town union.
Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Community Affairs, Tonycollins Nwabunwanne, communicated the sack of the executive members of the Oko Peoples Union (OPU), led by Amaechi Okoli, to the transition committee chairman of Orumba-North council, Ogechukwu Ekwueme, in a letter dated, February 26.
Entitled: “Dissolution of Oko Peoples Union executive,” the commissioner explained that the government’s action was taken to arrest “crisis rocking the Oko community in Orumba-North council as regards the town union election of Oko Peoples Union on January 11, 2021.”
The commissioner said petitions from stakeholders in the community showed that the election of the town union was married by protests and that the community had been in crisis since after the leadership came into place.
He said the state government has already constituted a caretaker committee to run the OPU, ensure peace in the community and make appropriate arrangements to conduct a free, fair and transparent town election for the community in December.
ANN gathered that the sacked OPU executive unilaterally midwifed the appointment of a former member of House of Representatives, Sopuru Ezeonwuka, as representative of Oko community without consulting the traditional ruler of the town, Laz Ekwueme.
It was gathered that Ekwueme who is the younger brother to the late former vice president, Alex Ekwueme, had been having estranged relationship with the Okopoly management and the federal ministry of Education for accepting Ezeonwuka.
The traditional ruler, ANN learnt, petitioned the ministry of education wherein he conveyed his non-approval of Ezeonwuka’s nomination.
But Okoli said it was not his OPU executive that nominated Ezeonwuka into the Okopoly Governing Council, but, “the people of Oko community.”
He also denied knowledge of the letter sacking his OPU executive committee.
