DISSIDENT WRITERS UPSTAGE ANA BAYELSA

Award-winning Nigerian poet, Prince Nengi Josef Owei-ilagha, was detained yesterday at the Zone 16 headquarters of the Nigerian police in Yenagoa, on arrival from the tenth memorial anniversary of Chinua Achebe, Africa's foremost novelist and author of the classic novels, Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God, at the Mamman Vatsa Writers' Village, Abuja.

The poet was detained along with six other Bayelsa writers who showed up for interrogation amongst a total of fifteen writers on an exclusive list, including his wife, Mrs Bina Nengi-Ilagha and Emmanuel Frank-Opigo, both Fellows of the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA. Other writers detained were Mrs Hannah Onoguwe, Secretary of ANA Bayelsa, Dr Tariere Angaye, Mrs Mercy Toruemi, and Opusam Ete.

The detention of the seven writers followed a petition filed by two expelled members of ANA Bayelsa chapter, Dr Akpos Adesi and Ebipreye Egbeinpere, who are pressing criminal allegations against their fellow writers, insisting that the writers on the list be summarily locked up for the night on charges of breaking and entering the secretariat of the Association, and for impersonation.

Reacting to the development, Prince Nengi Josef Owei-ilagha, fondly called Pope Pen, stated that he was shocked to know that, rather than identify with the abiding achievements of Chinua Achebe at such a historic moment, some writers were more concerned about how to get other writers behind bars. "How would that make them write better?" wondered Pope Pen. "This is the most absurd scenario I have ever been confronted with in all my career as a writer."

"The petitioners seem to have forgotten that I am the pioneer Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Authors in Bayelsa State. That fact cannot be altered. It bears repeating that when I presided over the inaugural meeting of the Association in September 2001 at Intercontinental Hotel, Imgbi Road, Yenagoa, we were only twelve members and the people haunting us now were nowhere near becoming members of the Association.

"I cannot forget the overwhelming presence of our first patron, Dr Gabriel Imomotimi Okara of the River Nun fame, Africa's first acclaimed modernist poet, as well as Simon Ambakaderemo and Christian Otobotekere. All three elderly writers have gone the way of all flesh. As we speak, the remains of His Royal Highness Christian Otobotekere, our late patron, still lie in the mortuary, and my most urgent prayer is that Bayelsa writers would gather together as one united family and give the aged poet the befitting burial he deserves.

"So it comes to me as a surprise that some wrong-headed pretenders are bringing fatuous and unwarranted allegations born out of a mischievous cast of mind into play. Exactly who did I impersonate, and when? Why would I want to break into the secretariat of an Association I started twenty-two years ago? To say the least, I feel ashamed on behalf of Adesi and Egbeinpere, to say nothing of any other befuddled sponsor behind them. The fact of the matter is that the allegations being levelled against the fifteen writers are false, non-existent and unfounded.

"The Bayelsa State chapter of ANA does not exist in isolation. It is an authentic body of writers at the state level existing under a national executive led by Camillus Uka, which only recently hosted the community of writers around the world, in real and virtual time, to commemorate the legacy of Achebe at the Mamman Vatsa Writers'Village, Abuja. Anyone acting outside that hierarchy of authority is a desperate imposter out to hijack the Association. Events will soon prove that this petty plot hatched by Adesi and company failed even before it began," said the poet.

All seven writers were released on bail before the day ran out. The Bayelsa chapter of ANA is currently under the leadership of Murphy Biriabebe, a poet and lawyer.