The Enugu State Commissioner for Innovation, Science and Technology, Engr Prince Lawrence Ezeh FNSE, Ph.D, felicitates with the State, His Excellency, Governor Peter Mbah’s on his unprecedented achievements within one year in the office.

The commissioner said there has been nothing tentative about Mbah’s one year in office, stating that the defined characteristics of his administration have been his appetite for good leadership and the breadth of his ambitions and determination is to pass his programs to the 260 wards across Enugu State.

In his one year congratulatory message to the Governor, the Commissioner said, “The establishment of these innovative institutions, such as the Smart Green Schools and Primary Health Centres across 260 wards of Enugu State, the construction of hundreds of kilometres of roads across the State, the provision of water in more than sufficient quantities, creating a more secured state where quality living and businesses thrive, all mark a new era of disruptive stewardship for ndi Enugu.,z

“These projects will undoubtedly serve as beacons of progress and inspiring future for generation to come.”

The good feelings that surrounded Mbah in the 12 months after Inauguration Day have not faded, as clear insights into his leader's temperament, governing style and political philosophy provide a guide to the future. He has been rewarded with high ratings that exceed those of his predecessors.

For many, his promise of Disruptive Governance, which echoed so powerfully during his campaign, has become more powerfully visible, feel-able and touchable.

In a significant development, Mburubu Community in Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu State, has put to an end the recent dispute surrounding its traditional stool, with the adoption of rotational system among the seven (7) villages in order of seniority.

Also the people of the community including elders, women, youth and other stakeholders disassociated the community from the recent protest against Engr. Prince Lawrence Ezeh, the Commissioner for Innovation, Science and Technology over the traditional stool, insisting that the protest was orchestrated by “power scavengers” who want to “promote anarchy and sever Mburubu rotational governance, including the traditional stool which is held for life and rotates among the seven villages in the order of seniority.”

The community has suffered from a fit of troubled times and crisis, over who ascend the throne. However, it is believed the rotational system as adopted will mitigate violence, foster reconciliation and restore peace in the community.

Chairman, Mburubu Town Union, Hon Chief Emmanuel Edeh in a press conference in Enugu said the protest was sponsored by “power drunk scavengers” who want to “protect their entrenched fraudulent motives aimed at buying over the traditional stool for self aggrandizement” and urged the public to disregard the said protest.

Hon Edeh clearly stated that the issue of order of rotational of the traditional stool is sacrosanct and undebatable.

He pointed out that the community would not allow any body to outsmart the kingship succession.

According to him, “Mburubu practices a unique rotational system of all social, political and traditional positions, in which the seven villages take turns in order of seniority.”

In the light of the rotational arrangement, constitutionally gazetted, the President General said, Uhuegbe Village which is next in line in seniority arrangement will produce the next traditional ruler.

He said that penultimate, marking the end of two-year mourning period of the late King, His Royal Majesty, Igwe E. M. O. Ezeh (Ozulumba I of Mburubu Kingdom) who dead in December 2021, the community officially signaled Uhuegbe Village whose turn it is, to start the process of nominating candidates for the election for the vacant stool.


Urging Uhuegbe Village not to present any candidate with questionable character to stand for the election, Chief Edeh said whoever would emerge as the new traditional ruler of Mburubu must be accepted by the indigenes. He said the order of rotation as originally determined by seniority and the rule has never changed.

Speaking about the protest, the President General said: “We make bold to state that the misconceived protest before the Enugu State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs has further exposed and confirmed by the protesters themselves to be for the selfish personal interest of their sponsor, self-imposed Igwe-elect in connivance with some mischief-makers to buy-over the crown.

According to him, “The protest was not and cannot be in the interest of the Mburubu Community and, therefore, does not have the support of the Mburubu people”.

“The personal failings of their sponsor are by now well-known, especially his pervasive desperation to sow social discord in Mburubu. It should have behoved on him and others in his immediate circle to have developed more critical perspicacity with regard to his insidious; yet, treacherous incitement of hatred among the people of Mburubu who has lives together for over a century.

“Their claims and sheepishly unguarded utterance against Engr. Prince Lawrence Ezeh revealed their sponsor’s deplorable desperation and indeed his irritating puerile birdbrain.”

Meanwhile, the Enugu State Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs which is mandated to handle chieftaincy matters is now expected to put up a memorandum to Governor Peter Mbah who will give the go ahead to the ministry to observe the election of the next king, declare an Igwe-elect for crowing and issuance of State certificate of recognition/ Staff of office. The Mburubu Town Union has the constitutional power to conduct the election.

With the rotational system now settled, it is believed that turbulent time over the community’s constitution and succession of the traditional stool has been put to rest.
The stool had placed the community on war path by causing ripples among them, but the Town Union had vowed not to consent to wrong choice.

“We have to show regard to the voice of peace, equity and good conscience and be ready for the consequences,” the Town Union President said.

In apparent jubilation, the people of Mburubu have since thrown their weight behind the adoption of the subsisting rotational/zoning system in the order of seniority.

When contacted, a source from the Ministry, said “I want to appeal to people of Mburubu to maintain the rotation system of the Igweship stool in the order of seniority.”

The unwarranted attacks on the Enugu State Commissioner for Science, Innovation and Technology Engr. Prince Lawrence Ezeh, Ph.D by scavengers that want to desecrate and decimate the age-long peaceful coexistence of his Mburubu Community has been drawn to his attention. Ordinarily, the Honourable Commissioner wouldn’t have elicited a response if not for the need to set the record straight.

His father, Igwe E.M.O Ezeh (Ozulumba 1 of Mburubu Kingdom) reigned for near 5 decades before his glorious demise in December 2021. He reigned in grandiose and grace, exuding peace, patience and love for his people. He was the first traditional ruler of the community. Therefore the traditional stool is not hereditary but rotational amongst the seven (7) villages.

And according to Wikipedia, “Rotation or rotational motion is the circular movement of an object around a central line, known as axis of rotation. It simply means rotation can be clock wise or anti-clock wise. In Mburubu, the late Igwe hailed from Umudala, common sense is that the next in the order of seniority, Uhuegbe Village, should produce the next traditional ruler.
It goes in this order:
Umudala
Uhuegbe
Uhuagu
Obinagu
Umunafor (where Onuokaibe hails from)
Amanator
Amachi

In view of the above, Mr Patrick Jerry Onuokaibe has no moral defense to hijack or procure the traditional stool whence it is not the turn of his village. The community in their last meeting on May 6th, presided over by the Mburubu Town Union requested Uhuegbe Village to present to the community their preferred candidates amongst which the community will elect one to ascend the throne.
The protest was ostensibly meant to drum the ember of war where there is none but why chose to isolate Prince Ezeh for attack if not to capitalise on his magnanimity and philanthropy to attract undeserved attention.

And what offence, if one may ask, has Prince Ezeh committed to deserve the attack? By all verdict the offence of the Honourable Commissioner is his boldness in speaking up for equity and fairness amongst the seven villages of Mburubu, against barbaric hawks that want to hijack the process and torn asunder the peaceful coexistence of the people of the community.


Continual unspooling of Mburubu community by overzealous parochial mundanes whose stock in trade is to always instill echoes of rancor, giving rise to vertigo-inducing sensation all in desperate attempt to caricature the people of the community is rather unfortunate. In applying the laws of gravity, the captains of the already doomed voyage of hatred egged and hatched by Onuokaibe will definitely mark calamitous woeful free-fall.

Onuokaibe has been sowing hatred and bafflement, furious discrimination and numb submissions about what he called, Ikenga and Odenigbo, and in some cases, a heady brand of dark glee. His only mantra of campaign of becoming the Igwe is hitched only on the same Ikenga and Odenigbo obnoxious and barbaric aged long practices. He has time without number tried to whip up sentiment in order to hoodwink Ikengas from other communities of Nkanuland who are not conversant with the history of Mburubu that Prince Ezeh is sponsoring an Ikenga to become the Igwe of the community. In putting the records straight, Uhuegbe Village which is the next in line in the order of seniority and whose time it is to produce the occupant of the stool is one of the two villages (Uhuegbe and Amachi) in Mburubu that does not have a single hut of Odenigbo in their various villages. The rest of the five villages are a mixture of the Ikengas and Odenigbos who have been coexisting and living peacefully since time immemorial, of which today, Onuokaibe is promoting a division and discrimination in the community — as the only tool to occupy the throne which is never his rightful place.

Uhuegbe village houses Ani Mburubu and its ancestral deity, which is the only deity generally worshipped and celebrated by all Mburubu traditional believers and its chief priest has always been produced from Uhuegbe village but surprisingly in one occasions, Onuokaibe’s crony, Mr Edwin Ezeh (Edinburg) threatened Uhuegbe village, that should they failed to initiate the Ani Festival to favour the ascendance of Onuokabie to the throne, strange chief priests will he imported to take over the affairs of Ani Mburubu and the deity.
Everything that has used as evidence of pathology to deride and malign the Prince of Mburubu – from their rough languages and jumbled disposition makes no common sense.
Mr. Onuokaibe has arrogated himself as one of the most impulsive, arrogant, ignorant, disorganised, chaotic, nihilistic, self-contradictory, self-important, and self-serving. His malignant abnormality is established — little-minded and birdbrained.
The very little poor rationale of Onuokaibe and his cohorts begs for a number of questions. It posits a failure, which intrinsically implies falling short of something that could be identified as a reasonable sense.

One wonders why the robust defense of the interest of Ndi Mburubu in general as peacefully conveyed by the Honourable Commissioner for Innovation, Science and Technology, should anger vicious, venomous and vainglorious individual(s) desperately wanting to ascend and/or purchase the traditional stool of Mburubu community. The Mburubu traditional stool is not reserved for “boys” of youthful exuberance and character floors but for men of honour, integrity and experience, with proven capability to preside over the affairs of the community with maturity and fear of God.
Let all who are interested from Uhuegbe village throw their hats in the ring and let the people decide. The Prince of Mburubu has never at any time said anything to the contrary. So it would be mischievous to accuse him of intending to impose a candidate for the throne. His only point is that since Rotational Arrangement is enshrined and recognized by the Mburubu Constitution, it would be wrong and unjust to subdue Uhuegbe Village which is next in the order of the community’s seniority. Surely, no right-thinking person would fault such a sound arrangement except mischief-makers.

Contrary to their poor claims, there is nothing like Abuse of Power about Prince Ezeh’s past or present. His reputation as a royalty, community leader of high integrity and philanthropist magna cum laude which is well known by all and sundry even if the desperate individual(s) and scavenger(s) choose to pretend to the contrary.

It wouldn’t be out of place to emphasize Prince Ezeh’s personal efforts to speak reasons into the skull(s) of the desperado(s) to allow the rotational arrangement to play in line with Mburubu constitution which were repeatedly frustrated by entrenched interests predicated to scuttle the community and create atmosphere of rancor where there is none.
Right now, the situation is that after all entreaties by Prince Ezeh to convince Onuokaibe and co-travellers to respect and allow the position of Mburubu constitution to prevail on the election of the new Igwe failed, the people of Mburubu under the auspices of Mburubu Town Union dragged to court the faceless group, Mburubu General Assembly, sponsored by Onuokaibe. Knowing that the matter is already in court and all parties served, what one should have expected from Onuokaibe is to respect the sanctity of the Nigerian court and pursue his claims peacefully, if he has any merit, than renting and sponsoring war chanting crowd to constitute nuisance on the street of Enugu, thereby disturbing and preventing other law abiding citizens of the State from carrying out their legitimate businesses at the secretariat. Onuokaibe should have known that renting of crowd and disturbing the peace of the people cannot bend the hands of law as the court still remains the hope of the common man, where issues are decided on the bases of their merits.

Final line: Let the mundane go attend to other things. We simply commend to them to the words of William Shakespeare: “Love me or hate me, both are in my favor. If you love me, I’ll always be in your heart… If you hate me, I’ll always be in your mind.” (Love or Hate Prince Engr Lawrence Ozemenam Ezeh, PhD, COREN, FNSE – both are in his favour. If you love him, he will always be in your heart ….if you hate him, he will always be in your mind).

Ogbonna Enyinaya
Special Assistant on Media and Communication to Prince Engram Lawrence Ezeh

On Friday, May 3, 2024, the Queen of Mburubu Kingdom in Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu State, Her Royal Majesty Queen Josephine Nwakaego Ezeh, embarks on her final journey with thousands of mourners, friends and well-wishers expected to attend the funeral.

The solemn departure of the queen body from the Eastern Medical Centre Enugu marks the start of an odyssey of mourning for Mburubu community.

Pallbearers carrying the queen's coffin will make a two hours journey through Nkanu lands before arriving at the Igwe Ozulumba Palace in Mburubu, where it will rest for few hours for close family and relatives to pay tribute and their respects before it is accompanied by the Prince of Mburubu Kingdom, Engr. Prince Lawrence Ezeh and other members of the Royal Family to St. John Catholic Church Mburubu to lie for public viewing and the funeral Mass. Afterwards, her remains will be brought back to the palace for internment. Reception will be held at the Community Primary School Mburubu for visiting guests.

Leading up to Queen’s burial, on Thursday, May 2, 2024, a wake-keep and night of tributes will be held for the Queen at the Igwe Ozulumba Palace in Umudara Mburubu.
After the burial, a four-day of series of cultural ceremony with symbolism begin for the right royal farewell.

Leading alongside her husband, Igwe E.M.O. Ezeh, the impact of her loss was keenly felt by the people, and of course, by the royal family themselves.

As a first class King’s wife, her essential spirit—strong, proud, hard-working, unimpressed with conventional marks of status and full of common sense and good humor—never changed.

Mburubu community will bid farewell to the Queen with all the pomp and flourish it could muster, pouring forth thanks to a woman who epitomized humility, integrity, uprightness, diligence, patriotism, fidelity and uncommon humaneness. She was greatly loved and cherished by her people.

The aura of peace and tranquility that Her Majesty wore, the exemplary leadership that The Queen bore, engendered deference which combined to hold the community together after the demise of her husband, the King.

Besides being a loving mother and extraordinary Queen and mother, she was a great humanitarian in all spheres.

Queen Josephine Ezeh has come, she has seen and has indeed conquered. Her transition, unquestionably, marks the end of an era. She has walked her own path, inspiring a nation and the world along the way.

May God, the Creator, give Queen Josephine Nwakaego Ezeh eternal rest whilst providing comfort to the family and sustaining the bond within the Mburubu Kingdom.

Fare thee well quintuple quintessential Queen!

The Zone 13 of the Nigeria Police, Ukpo, Anambra State has reportedly arrested Anambra born businessman, Chief Raphael Obidimma, popularly known as Odumodu Aguleri for alleged “kidnap and illegal custody of children that were not his”.

On Tuesday, following a crackdown, the police rescued two boys, Michael and Melvin, ages 12 and 10 years old, who were found locked up in the suspect’s private building.

Further investigation revealed that the suspect, had no relationship whatsoever with the kids, raising suspicion that he was either trafficking these kids or had plans to use them for rituals.

The kids have been rescued and released to their family for proper care.

As at the time of filing this report, the Zone 12 Police Public Relations Officer was yet to officially make Press Statement and all calls put across to his line did not go through.

Source: Jungle Journalist

The lingering tussle over who occupies the vacant traditional stool in Mburubu Kingdom, in Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu State has taken a new dimension. This is as a High Court sitting in the state has ordered Chief Jerry Patrick Onuokaibe to stop parading himself as the Igwe-elect of the community.

The order was sequel to a motion ex parte brought before Justice J.I.C Okibe by six plaintiffs through their lawyer, Barr Ike Ozor.

Justice Okibe ordered other defendants/respondents- Arch Chijioke Nwachukwu and Obinna Okonkwo, representing Mburubu General Assembly, their agents or any other person to stop claiming or parading Onuokaibe as the Igwe-elect of Mburubu Town pending the determination of the ex parte motion.
The plaintiffs had through a motion ex parte sought an order of interim injunction restraining the 3rd defendant (Onuokaibe), “from parading himself or holding out himself as the Igwe-elect of Mburubu Town and the 1 and 2 defendants or any other person or group from Mburubu Town from addressing or referring to the defendant as Igwe-elect of Mburub Town pending the determination of the motion on notice filed along with the application.”

In a ruling, the judge held that: “the motion ex parte is granted as prayed.
That Order of Interim Injunction is hereby granted restraining the 3rd Defendant from parading himself or holding out himself as the Igwe-elect of Mburubu Town and the 1st and 2nd Defendants or any other person or group from Mburubu Town from addressing or referring to the Defendant as Igwe-elect of Mburubu Town pending the determination of motion on notice filed along with this application.”

It would be recalled that penultimate, residents of Mburubu Community erupted in anger and protested against the alleged plan to impose a man on the community as monarch

The protesters warned that any attempt by Mburubu General Assembly to subvert the Mburubu Town Union Constitution and impose a monarch against their wish will be resisted and could lead to crisis in the community.

They also claimed that the embattled Onuokaibe was been imposed by an ‘uncertified’, illegal group in the community.