•We complied with constitution, says President General
From Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Awka
Nanka community in Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra State, after the death of their traditional ruler, Sir Gilbert N. Ofomata has been having skirmishes for holding last Ofala for the king while his remains were still in morgue.
Crown Prince of Nanka community and first son of the late Igwe Ofomata, Mr. Chijioke Ofomata told Daily Sun the community committed a taboo by organising last Ofala for his father while he was yet to be buried.
He noted that the tradition in the community and in Igboland was that the last Ofala should have been organised after a befitting burial of the king. He said some people defied tradition and organised the festival on January 23, 2016 against a scheduled date of April 2, 2016, after the Igwe’s burial on March 31, 2016.
Prince Ofomata noted that the date was generally accepted by both Council of Chiefs and Traditional Rulers in Orumba North before “some persons in the community came up with a kangaroo constitution that, organising last Ofala for the Igwe would contravene the said constitution and went ahead and held it on January 23.”
He claimed traditionally, the community will not know peace until the befitting last Ofala is held for the late Igwe, based on its tradition. The prince also noted that after a meeting with Special Adviser to the governor on Chieftaincy and Town Union Matters, where it was resolved that the last Ofala should be held after the Igwe’s burial on April 2, 2016, “some persons went ahead to organise the festival before the burial, which was against tradition.”
He, however alleged former Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Hosea Karma, now Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Zone 9, Umuahia, as saying that the state government ordered the Ofala be held before the burial.
He urged Karma to “produce documents where the government gave a counter-directive that the Ofala should be held on January 23 before the burial of the Igwe.
“If not, he should retract the statement in a newspaper and apologise to the Ofomata family for such statement. We want him to produce the document by government which indicated that the Ofala be held before the Igwe’s burial.
But, President-General of Nanka Patriotic Union (NPU), Chief Bernard Onyekwelu, in his reaction to the allegation insisted the community followed the constitution which stipulates that when a traditional ruler dies, everything about his burial and Ofala should be done within one year.
He noted that “the traditional ruler died on February 9, 2015 but the family refused to bury him within one year, as stipulated by the constitution which made the community to organise the Ofala for the king on January 23, 2016, in order to meet up with constitutional requirements.
On the allegation that the constitution was not followed, Onyekwelu said amendment of the constitution followed due process with a committee set up under the leadership of his predecessor.
He said the amended constitution was launched in 2011 when the king was alive which nobody objected to until this year.