The purported suspension of the President, Ohaneze Youth Council in Bayelsa State, Chief Chinedu Arthur-Ugwa, by the state chapter of Ohaneze Ndiigbo has torn the Igbo community in the state apart.
The President of Ohaneze Ndiigbo, Chief Okwudiri Oko and Secretary, Mr. Nnanna Raymond, in a general meeting of the group in Yenagoa had declared that Chinedu had been suspended over alleged misappropriation and diversion of funds.
The two were said to have announced the removal of the leader of the youth wing without allegedly following procedures enshrined in the constitution of OYC.
The removal was said to have been announced in a local radio station.
Despite protest against the actions of Oko and his backers by executive members of the OYC who attended the general meeting, Oko reportedly insisted that Chinedu must go.
But the executive members of OYC after an emergency meeting in Yenagoa on Wednesday passed a vote of confidence on Chinedu and asked Oko to stay away from the affairs of the OYC.
The executive members in a four-point resolution signed by OYC Treasurer, Mr.Alex Ihejirika and Coordinator, Amasoma Cajeta Onwudiwe, said it was wrong for the parent body to make a statement suspending Chinedu without consulting the youth wing as well as establishing a panel to investigate the allegations levelled against him.
They said all the allegations contained in a petition written by some persons against Chinedu were false and misleading.
They said it was malicious and character assassination for the parent body to go ahead and announce the suspension on a local radio without giving Chinedu fair hearing.
The executive members submitted that the attitude of Oko and Raymond and their deliberate efforts to use the Ohaneze Ndiigbo for their selfish political gains had portrayed them as incompetent persons.
“We, the Ohaneze Youth Council, Bayelsa state chapter, have passed a vote of confidence on the leadership of Chief Chinedu Arthur-Ugwa as the Ohaneze Youth Council President, Bayelsa State chapter,” he said.
One of the executive members, Mr. Uche Iweka, Welfare Officer 2, said on the day Chinedu was purportedly suspended, Oko and Raymond offered people money to append their signatures to affirm the suspension.
Iweka, who complained that they were not in the know of the agenda of the meeting before they got to the venue, stated, “So after everything I said no, that if anything is happening in the executive we have to sort it out in the executive.
“We have to go through the normal process such as setting up a panel to investigate our leader. They threatened to impeach me too if l refused to sign the document. I dared them and asked them to impeach me because l was not ready to partake in their illegality. It was a kangaroo arrangement and it will not stand.”
Speaking on the development, Chinedu said he was in Abuja when someone called him on the telephone and told him that the Ohaneze had suspended him.
He said the parent body had no right to remove him and vowed to tackle persons behind he malicious publications against him. (Punch)
