•How Owerri festival reopened old wounds, factions trade tackles over Onwa-Oru Uratta
From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
The crisis surrounding the Obibi-Uratta stool in Owerri North Local Government, Imo State, took a messy dimension on February 27, 2025, when the community’s cultural festival, Onwa Oru, was disrupted by gunshots.
The community has been engulfed in crisis since 2023 when Governor Hope Uzodimma reportedly issued a certificate of recognition to Boniface Ariri as the traditional ruler of Obibi-Uratta. This happened as another claimant to the stool, Amobi Uwaleke, said he had occupied the throne since 2018.
With two claimants to the stool, the community was polarised. This year’s Onwa-Oru festival provided the opportunity for the two factions to flex muscles. And they did.
Daily Sun had reported that Eze Ariri and his group held their own festival on February 11, 2025. But attempts by the rival group to stage its own event as scheduled by the Oha, the body said to be custodians of Uratta culture and traditions, was foiled. The event was reportedly not approved by the police, who alleged that it could lead to breach of peace.
Notwithstanding, Uwaleke insisted that there was no need preventing his people from holding the cultural rite that would usher in a new planting season in the area. They went on with the programme as planned.
According to him, as their convoy was making its way to the Orie Market Square, some suspected hoodlums waylaid it and shot directly at their vehicles: “We applied for police protection, the Commissioner of Police approved it, we also wrote to the DSS.
“That day we were going in a convoy. Before we got to Orie Agba, some suspected cult boys barricaded the road we were plying. They opened fire on my two SUVs. My vehicle’s wheels and tyres were punctured by the bullets, my Hilux was badly shot. Their aim was to kill me. No matter what they did to me, we never retaliated.”
He said he survived the attack by a miracle because his vehicle was bullet proof. He claimed that it was not the duty of Uratta Development Association (UDA) to host Onwa Oru: “The practice has been that if they do their Onwa Oru, we do our own and there had not been any quarrel.
“They wrote a petition to the police and I went to answer. It’s not UDA that conducts Onwa Oru. It’s the duty of the Oha Uratta, I was just an invitee. If Oha Urata fixes the date for the Onwa Oru, they invite us.
“Before, it used to be celebrated in different villages. But this year, we chose to celebrate it by just moving around in convoy. We had planned to go round the Ime Orie and return. It was at that time that they started shooting at us. It was like a battleground.
“We were calm when they had their own Onwa Oru. We didn’t even come out that day; nobody attacked them. We knew it was their fundamental right to do it. They fixed theirs for February 11 and we fixed ours for 27. They finished theirs and we wanted to do our own; it’s not fair attacking us.”
In what appeared like a blame game, UDA’s president general, Stanley Ukaga, said there was crisis because Uwaleke defied police order banning their festival.