The angst against the Port Harcourt City Council of Chiefs, following recent actions taken against some Eze-elects in Rebisi Kingdom, is far from over as the Rumuokokwu Community has vowed not to pay the fine imposed against it for alleged violation of chieftaincy coronation processes.
Recall that the Port Harcourt City Council of Chiefs had in a recent publication, accused Elder Nnanta Nnokam and some members of Rumuokokwu Community in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area, of installing a member of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Hon. Azeru Opara, as Eze Udo V of Rebisi, without the customary fiat to do so, contrary to its extant custom, tradition and heritage.
The Council further frowned over claims that some persons were either hiding under the cloak of Community Development Committees (CDC) or masquerade as Owhor Holders (alluding to Rumuokokwu Community), to coronate Chiefs in Rebisi Kingdom ‘with intent to instigate and promote unrest and chaos’.
Consequently, the Council placed a fine of seven bulls, seven cartons of Cognac, seven crates of assorted soft drinks, fifty tubers of yam (to go with each bull) and other statutory fines to accompany the above, with a two weeks’ ultimatum to pay the fines.
But, in a swift reaction, the Rumuokokwu Community unequivocally declared that it dully complied with the Rebisi traditional processes in the chieftaincy installation of their son, Hon. Azeru Opara, Eze Udo V.
In a statement jointly signed by eight chiefs and elders, including the Head of the community, Chief Elder Sunny Nnanta Nnokam and Chairman, Caretaker Committee of Rumuokokwu Community, Uche Jeremiah Ejekwu, the community said it was not only surprised by the publication but astounded by the actions of the Council.
The community said it would have ignored the publication, but had to do the rebuttal, so as to correct what it viewed as the erroneous assertions which distorts and erodes the extant and age-long customary practice regulating chieftaincy selection and nomination in Rebisi Kingdom.
“The Rumuokokwu Community never hid under the guise of a community Development Council (CDC) nor is it proper to refer to the act of the Head of our community in the person of Elder Sunny Nnanta Nnokam in coronating our Chief, Eze (Hon) Azeru Opara as an act of ‘masquerading’, the statement affirmed, adding that the community took vehement exception to such allusion.
The community went down memory lane to reel off the succession of the Eze Udo stool, beginning from Late Chief Amadi-Wati, Epara Okokwu who reigned as Eze Udo 1 to the Late Eze Nathan Ihunda Nnokam Epara Okokwu who reigned as Eze Udo IV.
“Contrary to the position taken by the Council, it has been the age long practice that the royal families in Rebisi Kingdom (i.e the chiefs producing families) would first, in their families, select and crown a person as her Chief and subsequently present the person so crowned to the Council for a ceremonial coronation or what may be referred to as ‘recognition’ of the person so crowned by his family.
This is exactly what our Rumuokokwu Community did, and nothing more”, they declared, wondering how the coronation of their son, Eze (Hon) Azeru Opara as Eze Udo V is ‘with the intent to instigate and promote unrest and chaos in Rebisi Kingdom’.
The Rumuokokwu community added that all past occupants of the Eze Udo stool were subjected to the same procedure, including all ancestral and natural chiefs in the Council, except the Honorary Chiefs in the Council, puncturing the position of the Port Harcourt City Council of Chiefs that a customary fiat ought to be obtained to crown an Eze in Rebisi Kingdom.
“On the basis of all the aforesaid, it is clear that we are not liable to any fine.
So, imposing fine on our community and predicating same on the crowning of our son, only strengthens and adds more flesh to the alarm we have raised and would continue to raise, except the conspiracy and orchestration are abated”, the statement ended, while calling on the Council to rescind and reverse the fine pronounced against the Rumuokokwu Community.
