Oko Youths Seek Govt’s Intervention In Community Crisis

Youths from Oko
Community in Anambra State  have called on the state government to intervene in the crisis among them, their town union and their traditional ruler.
The youths made the call during a protest at the Government House, Awka recently.
They carried placards with inscriptions ‘Igwe has banished 13 youths for no just cause’, ‘Igwe is shooting and killing his subjects with soldiers’, ‘Gov. please use your good office to give us peace in Oko’.
Other placards read ‘Dethrone Igwe and let us have peace’, ‘Igwe is ostracising his people,’’ and “Igwe is making mockery of Oko community,” among others.
The leader of the youth wing of the Oko Progressive Union, Mr Tochukwu Ezeokafor, said they were protesting the injustice and instigation of crisis by the leadership of the community.
Ezeokafor said the youths were tired of the situation where the supposed chief security officers of the community were the ones humiliating the subjects for their selfish reasons.
He said that 13 people had been banished from the community and the masquerade festival disrupted to create a chaotic situation.
“They want to have certain things done their own way but we have vowed to resist it.
“Oko has not known peace for some time now. They have been banishing people, using soldiers to shoot us, killing our masquerades and instigating crisis everywhere.
“We are calling on the Anambra Government to come to our defence, dethrone the traditional ruler, dissolve the town union as presently constituted and set up a committee of inquiry to restore peace.
“I am also one of the banished people. Our crime is that they called us to join their plot to remove the Rector of Federal Polytechnic, Oko, and we refused, so they decided to ostracise us,’’ he said.
Addressing the protesters, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media, Mr Emeka Eze, thanked them for their patience and peaceful demonstration.
Eze assured them that the government was aware of the crisis in Oko and was willing to find a common ground for peace to reign.