NEWS

EKPEYE HALTS CASSIDY

The Ekpeye Council of Traditional Rulers and Chiefs has barred Hon. Cassidy Okpara Ikegbidi from participating in all traditional and political activities in Ekpeye land henceforth.
This followed an alleged desecration of the "very customs and traditions" of the Ekpeye people by Ikegbidi as it concerns the processes to been crowned as a King.
The former chairman of Ahoada East Council was alleged to have flouted the customs and traditions of the people by secretly installing himself as Eze Igbu Akoh,a second class traditional stool.
The decision to ostracize Ikegbidi was taken at a Council meeting chaired by Eze Dr. Felix Enene Otuwarikpo, Eze Igbu Upata, held at Ekpeye House in Ahoada town.
Addressing other Ezes,community heads,titled chiefs,youth and women leaders on behalf Eze Ekpeye Logbo,Eze Robinson O. Robinson, Eze Otuwarikpo said the "secret coronation" purported to have been performed by Cassidy smacks of "recklessness and a total debasement of sacred values of the Ekpeye people".
Insisting that the period of "rascality is gone in Ekpeye land", Eze Otuwarikpo further announced the suspension of community heads,chiefs and titled chiefs associated with the "illegal installation of Cassidy as Eze Igbu Akoh II. What happened at Ula Ehuda,the ancestral home of the Akoh people was sacrilege, a taboo that has no trace to the enviable customs and traditions of the people.
"We are united in this decision to ban Cassidy Okpara Ikegbidi from all traditional and political activities in Ekpeye land. He shall not attend nor convoke any form of meeting or attend any traditional and political event. He is henceforth stripped of all traditional titles; he is no longer a chief in Ekpeye Kingdom and should not be addressed as such".
Stressing that the self coronation by Cassidy was capable of breaching the peace, Eze Otuwarikpo who is Chairman of the Ahoada Council of Traditional Rulers and Chiefs noted the current peace was "hard won. Nobody should act in ways to provoke restiveness".
He further called on youths not to allow themselves be engaged in violent acts that could further retard their growth, advising however that they should galvanize into a force for positive change.
Cassidy was allegedly accused of acting in breach of Ekpeye laws guiding processes for coronation of an Eze when at night got himself installed as Eze Igbu Akoh,a sub clan in Ekpeye Kingdom. The decision to ostracize him was reached after he allegedly failed to attend several invitations made for him to defend himself on alleged traditional offences.
The highlight of the meeting includes that the Igbu Akoh people should without delay form an Election Committee to facilitate the selection process to the vacant stool. The stool became vacant following the death of the occupant, late Eze Okpara Ololube.

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