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EKPEYE PEOPLE APPEAL FOR AMENDMENT OF LOCAL GOVT. LAW …. PETITIONS GOVERNOR AMAECHI



A group of concerned indigenes of Ekpeyeland in Rivers State have appealed for an amendment of the State Local Government Law on five per cent stipends for Traditional Rulers.



The appeal is contained in a letter presented to the State Governor Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi today during a peaceful protest by some chiefs, elders and youths of Ekpeyeland to Government House Port Harcourt.



Presenting the letter, the Secretary, Eze Ekpeye Logbo in-Council, P. C. Eze Ihua Maduenyi explained that the appeal became necessary because if the law was not amended to reflect the homogenous status of Ekpeye people, it could balkanize the traditional and cultural heritage of the people.



According to him, “the law as it is could also deprive Ekpeye people of Ahoada East extraction the opportunity to aspire to the stool of Eze Ekpeye Logbo in future”.



Eze Ihua Maduenyi, who is also the Eze Igbu Ehuda (Ahoada III) maintained that since Ahoada has been the traditional headquarters of Ekpeye kingdom, the creation of Ahoada West and Ahoada East as separate Local Government Areas should not on its own, relocate the site of the stool of Eze Ekpeye Logbo to Akinima in Ahoada West.



He pointed out that the law as passed by the Rivers State House of Assembly on the provision of five per cent stipends for the kingdom, “excised the stool of Eze Ekpeye Logbo to Ahoada West whereas the sit of the stool is in Ahoada Town, Headquarters of Ahoada East Local Government Area”.



The amendment of the law, he maintained, would ensure “one indivisible ethnic nationality with the stool of Eze Ekpeye Logbo remaining a unifying factor and the highest chieftaincy stool that binds Ekpeye people together in keeping with the dream of their forefathers”.



Receiving the protesters at Government House, Port Harcourt, on behalf of the Governor, the Permanent Secretary Government House Mr Oguru Fortune Oguru assured them that their message would be taken to the Governor as soon as he returns from Abuja.



Mr Oguru, who explained that the creation of Local Government Areas was for administrative convenience and not to divide the people, urged them to remain peaceful and law abiding as the present administration was poised to protect the interest of all citizens.







BLESSING WIKINA

Ag. Chief Press Secretary to the Governor