Anambra: Community council berates electoral college process of selecting traditional ruler

The traditional council of the Ihite Community in Orumba South Local Government Area, which is responsible for selecting a monarch in the community, has berated the community’s President General, Mr. George Madu, for bypassing them to elect a traditional ruler.

The council said it was not part of the constitution of the community for an electoral college to be set up to elect a monarch.

During a meeting of the council over the weekend, it said the constitution of the community, which Madu had long jettisoned, stipulated that only the traditional council and the executive of the town union have the power to come together and elect a new monarch.

The council members who met and spoke to the media during the meeting included Sir Chief Dominic Ahamkonye, Chief Daniel Ifemkpa, Mr. Anudu Ephraim, and Chief Geoffrey Okeke, among others.

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Speaking one after the other, the council members said: “It has never happened like that in the history of Ihite. We were meeting with the town union executive for them to join us so that we can kick-start the process of electing a new Igwe for the community since it’s been two years already since the last monarch died.

“We were surprised that the PG set up what he called an electoral college, and before long, they said they have selected a new traditional ruler for Ihite.

“Where has it ever been heard that the election for the monarch was done without the input of the traditional council, or that the election was done outside Ihite? It is a shame that in what they called the election of a traditional ruler, women lined up to vote. Things are not done like that,” the members of the traditional council lamented.

They called on the governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, to discountenance the exercise and not to issue a certificate to the new monarch, Mr. Timothy Ifurunwa.

Meanwhile, the president general who was accused of masterminding the process, Mr. Madu, has dismissed the traditional council as a few disgruntled elements who are opposed to the progress of the community.