By Jude Michael
The Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has told Chief Austin Ndigwe who has been parading himself as the traditional ruler of Awka that the true monarch of the kingdom remains Obi Gibson Nwosu
This just as Soludo said there was no amount of development a community, state or country could achieve without peace.
The Governor said this while honouring the invitation to an event hosted in Awka by Chief Austin Ndigwe, the Traditional Prime Minister of Awka Kingdom.
According to Governor Soludo, the most important thing anywhere for a town to be well developed was peace.
He said that he would like to live in Awka peacefully as a governor and also after his tenure because he wanted peace to reign supreme.
Stating that his friendship with Chief Ndigwe had spanned a long time, Governor Soludo said there was need to allow peace to reign in Awka by allowing the only government certified traditional ruler, Chief Gibson Nwosu, to exist as the traditional ruler of Awka.
The governor stated that Anambra State had laws which clearly stipulated how to enthrone a king.
‘In the laws of Anambra, the only traditional ruler the government will recognize is the person with the certificate as the traditional ruler of the town.
‘The laws of Anambra State have it that the rightful traditional ruler of a community is the person with the certificate.
‘If a community selects you to be their Igwe, then the government must issue you with a certificate before you emerge the Igwe accordingly.
‘So, as it is in Awka today, the only Igwe we recognize as the Igwe is still the person with the certificate, in the person of Gibson Nwosu,’ Soludo reiterated.
‘Now I am telling my friend to cool down because there is a today and there is a tomorrow; if we remember that there is death, we will thread with caution.
‘We are birds of passage and afterwards it is the work we did that we will be remembered; but one fundamental thing that is more than me and everybody here is that when we go, Awka and Anambra will remain,’ Soludo concluded.
