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PORT HARCOURT– Egbeda community in Emohua Local Government Area of Rivers State has accused the Emohua Council Chairman, Dr Chidi Lloyd, of imposing youth leadership in the community and instigating crisis.
The community said the chairman’s nomination of the new youth leadership was done unilaterally, without any public consultation.
They appealed to the inspector general of police, Kayode Egbetokun, and Governor Siminalayi Fubara to intervene and avert a looming breakdown of law and order in the area.
An accusation, the Emohua Council Chairman, Dr. Chidi Lloyd had denied, describing it as false and misleading.
But the community maintained that the council chairman acted in defiance of an already existing traditional authority vested with the power of appointing youth leadership in the community.
The made the disclosure over the weekend during a stakeholders’ meeting convened by the community’s monarch, Eze Christopher Didia, at the community playground, with other title holders, chiefs, elders, women, youths, and children in attendance.
In an address delivered on his behalf by the palace secretary, Chief Francis Egbe, Eze Didia reaffirmed that the authority to appoint leaders of the Community Development Committee (CDC) and the Egbeda Youth Council (EYC) has always resided with the traditional council, Nye Nwe Ali.
Didia said, “Any intervention or abrupt interruption on the functions or roles of our traditional rulership by any person or group of persons despite his/their status is usually offensive and marks the commencement of laying the foundation for a crisis.”
Eze Didia described Dr Lloyd’s action as “morally messy, politically unhealthy and offensive, culturally illicit, legally unlawful, socially unacceptable and provocative”.
He warned that the development risks undermining the “peace, security, love and togetherness” the community is enjoying.
The chairman of Egbeda Owhor title holders, Nye-Ohna Lawrence Edi, echoed the monarch’s concerns and urged indigenes to resist being used “as stooges to cause division and destruction”.
He told Dr Lloyd to follow the path of peace, adding that the will of the community supersedes all other external interests.
A resolution adopted by the Owhor holders denounced the council chairman’s authority to impose youth leadership in the community, insisting that the actions of Dr. Chidi Lloyd usurped the responsibility of an already existing body recognised by law.
The resolution reads in part, “Members of the Egbeda community, including the youth and CDC executives, will not submit to Hon. Chidi Lloyd’s decision, which imposed leadership on the Egbeda youths and Community Development Committee without the consent, knowledge, or valid understanding of the community, one that already has a government recognised second-class traditional ruler.
“Our stand is No! No!! No!!! to your decision in this matter.”
