•Tales of endless battle  for kingship

From Paul Osuyi, Asaba

The kidnap and gruesome murder of Obi Akaeze Edward Ofulue III of Ubulu-Uku Kingdom, in Aniocha South Local Government Area of Delta State last January, has inadvertently opened a fresh page in the kingship crisis, rocking the ancient stool with regard to succession. As a kingdom that practises the principle of primogeniture, which is from father to his first son, the late Obi’s first son, 17-year-old Chukwuka Noah Akaeze, was installed in February, barely one month after the decomposing corpse of his father was discovered. However, the installation has been faulted by a section of the community, which is contending that his late father had, in 2006, ascended the throne in controversial circumstances, as they claimed that he usurped the throne of his half elder brother, Prince Edward Okuchukwu Ofulue, the Umogu.

Prince Okuchukwu was born in 1955, while the late Akaeze Ofulue was born in 1962 at Chelsea in London, of two different mothers, to the then Crown Prince, Edward Ofulue, who succeeded his father, Obi Ofulue I, as king in 1964. He was Obi Edward Ofulue II.

As a Prince, Edward Chukwuyem Ofulue had, in search of the proverbial Golden Fleece, sojourned to London, where he met his first wife, an Irish lady, Florence Herbert. Their marriage union, which bore four children, including Victoria, Okuchukwu, Geoffery Ubulukume and Mark Ezeamaka, was said to have been contracted in 1956 before a Registrar in the District of Kensington UK. 

Prince Okuchukwu’s birth in 1955, according to palace sources, was significant because it was the year that his grandfather, Ofulue I, who was said to have named him and his siblings, accepted Christianity and became an Anglican devotee. Findings revealed that Obi Ofulue I became anxious of the need to preserve the kingship lineage of the royal family, as he openly expressed concern over the continued stay of his heir apparent and his nuclear family in far away London. He was said to have packaged a woman of Ogwashi-Uku descent to London, as wife for his heir apparent, in the belief that if the children of the Irish wife became stuck in the white man’s land, the children of the Ogwashi-Uku woman would find their way home in due course.

The arrangement created crisis, resulting in a bigamy suit instituted by Queen Florence Ofulue (the Irish wife) against her husband and Ubulu-Uku crown prince, Edward Ofulue, which was eventually dismissed based on the traditional status of the defendant. The union between the Ogwashi-Uku woman and the crown prince produced Akaeze Ofulue in 1962, and subsequently, other children. Akaeze first came to Nigeria in 1964 when his father ascended the throne. He had his primary and secondary education in Ubulu-Uku.

Okuchukwu, on his part, came to Nigeria in 1979 when the relevant arms of the traditional institution were said to have performed the complementary rites of acceptance, which culminated into his crowning, as the heir apparent in 1985. He was said to be constantly visiting Ubulu-Uku while his father was alive, but he was in London when Obi Ofulue II died. Members of the royal family, including Akaeze, were said to be in London at the time their father passed on in 2006.

Recalling the events, the Onishe of Ubulu-Uku, Chief Emmanuel Ejiofor, alleged that a section of the royal family allegedly staged a palace coup in 2006 by installing Akaeze Edward Ofulue III, as the successor of Obi Ofulue II. According to Ejiofor, who became the Onishe in 2005, “what they did in 2006 was a palace coup, which did not work because people like us resisted it. By 2006, Madam Jibunor called a meeting of the royal family in London. All of them were there, but Akaeze sneaked to Nigeria.

“When Okuchukwu discovered that Akaeze had sneaked out, they cancelled the meeting. When they now gathered to discuss, they received phone calls from home, warning Jibunor not to come to Ubulu-Uku with the white man (Okuchukwu). 

“So, they asked Okuchukwu to wait for the security situation at home to be addressed. But after one week, he saw the picture of Akaeze dressed like a king on the Internet. He now felt the people did not want him.  But because the father told him that his people would certainly come to look for him, even if it took 20 or 30 years, he felt he could still be king.

“Three years after, the Umu-Ezim, who had in December 2006 gone to court to stop government from recognising Akaeze, asked me to help them locate Okuchukwu. I found him in 2010 and started persuading him.  As at this time, it must be stated that his father was still in the hospital. The Umu-Ezim now wrote a letter to him to come and tell them the whereabouts of his father because he was the only authority, as the first son. 

“He came on May 3, 2011 and announced to the kingmakers the hospital the father went. It was then the Umu-Ezim said the throne could not be empty and gave him the title, Umogu, which qualifies him to start processing himself, and he has been doing that.”

Perhaps, Ejiofor’s opposition to Akaeze Ofulue III’s emergence and other allegations of boycotting the installation ceremonies and palace activities led to his suspension, as Onishe in 2007 and later derobed in 2011 by the Obi-in-Council. Ejiofor argued that those, who purportedly suspended and later derobed him, as the Onishe lacked the locus to do so because, according to him, as the Onishe whose responsibility it is to crown a new king, he never crowned Ofulue III, neither did he crown the 17-year-old new king, Noah Akaeze I.

He said: “Those people have no locus, it is not an election matter; my position is not elective, I am representing an institution. It belongs to my kindred. I was not appointed by the Obi. I was selected by my people, the Alu dynasty.

“Do you give what you don’t have? You can’t give what you don’t have. Somebody, who was never a king, suspending a titled man, who ought to have crowned him if he merited being crowned.

“It is Onishe that crowns the king after due process. According to them, Onishe does not crown but presents the king to the people. Which is which? Akaeze wrote a letter in 2007, exonerating me of their lies. I never crowned him.

“That throne is not vacant. Noah can never sit on the throne, Akaeze (Ofulue III) knew he was not the king. If he was the king, what stopped him from making his immediate younger brother the Ozoma, as tradition demands?

“Akaeze’s (Ofulue III’s) mother was packaged as Option B in case the right heir refused to come back. Ofulue I wanted his grandchildren to come back. But that option was dissolved since 1979 because Okuchukwu came back that year and was taken round the shrines, as the first son of the king. In 1985, he was installed as the crown prince at the palace in Ubulu-Uku.”

But the Obi-in-Council and the leadership of Ubulu-Uku Development Council (UDC) insist that the late Ofulue III was the right heir to the throne when he was installed in 2006, maintaining that he was the eldest son of Ofulue II recognised by tradition. Addressing a press council at the palace in Ubulu-Uku, the UDC National President, Comrade Jones Ofunne, said when Prince Akaeze Ofulue was born in London, the relevant traditional rite, the ifime-isi, was performed on him, as required of the heir apparent.

Ofunne said the news of Akaeze’s birth was “heralded with canon shots in the palace ground by his grandfather, Obi Ofulue I, who subsequently killed cows and feted the Umuobi, Umuozim and members of Ubulu-Uku community in commemoration of the birth of an heir to the throne.

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Said he: “An emissary, Prince Sunny Ofulue, the present Ozoma-Onya of Ubulu-Uku, was dispatched to London to perform an important traditional rite on the new born king called ‘ifime-isi.’

“The reason Obi Ofulue III is king, instead of the three first sons of different mothers before him, lies in the tenets of our tradition, as enunciated and amplified by the decisions, pronouncements and actions taken by Obi Ofulue I. He personally midwifed, with pomp and ceremony, the traditional marriage of the Queen he wanted to bear the heir to the throne of his fathers.”

Ofunne, who was flanked by the regent, Prince Anthony Ofulue, and other palace chiefs, stated that Ejiofor parted ways with the kingdom when he allegedly led a rebellion against the king, Ofulue III, leading to his suspension in 2007 before being sacked in 2011 when he remained unrepentant and recalcitrant.

“His removal as chief was endorsed by the Obi-in-Council and the entire community. The word of a king is law and no subject, no matter how highly placed, is greater than the king. He was Onishe for only two years and some months,” he stated.

He countered Ejiofor’s claim that it was the responsibility of the Onishe to crown a new king, explaining that all the chiefs in the administrative cadre of the palace answer to, and work for the king.

He said: “The Onishe, during the time of Obi Ofulue I, Chief Onwordi, died before the king. When Obi Ofulue I departed to join his ancestors, there was no Onishe. Obi Ofulue II was enthroned and crowned without an Onishe in the kingdom and he was a revered and esteemed king that reigned for over 40 years (1964 – 2006).

“He (OfulueII) appointed Chief Charles Onwordi and subsequently Emmanuel Ejiofor. So, how is it that without an Onishe, a king cannot be crowned? There are so many reputable chiefs in the administrative cadre of the kingdom and they all answer to, and work for the king. Our tradition demands that when a king departs, it is hush-hush. The Umuobi (royal family) and Olizene Imunor (inner house chiefs) perform the traditional rites of ‘isume ike nukpo’ – to put the heir apparent’s butt on the royal stool. 

“This ceremony is shrouded in secrecy. Most chiefs and ordinary mortals do not know when and how it is done. As soon as the ceremony of ‘isume ike nukpo’ is performed, the Obi is enthroned and crowned instantly. 

“He becomes Obi from that moment and that is the day recognised by law, as the date of commencement of rulership. He does not require anyone to crown him after this. He is then presented to the Obi-in-Council, Umuozim and the community to pay their respect. This usually happens in the midnight. It is during the presentation of the Obi to the community at ‘Ogwa Uku’ that is the big palace court, that the Onishe introduces the king by raising his right hand.”

Meanwhile, those on the other side of the divide faulted the UDC president on the rituals of ifime-isi on Akaeze at birth, pointing out that traditionalists from Onicha-Okpe were usually invited to the palace to perform the sacred rite at the birth of an heir. According to an indigene of the town, who pleaded not to be named in print, “traditionalists from Onicha-Okpe were usually invited to the palace, with a good quantity of herbs that would be placed underneath the prince’s neck to serve as a pillow while the fortification lasted. 

“Ifime-isi could only be done with the prince  in attendance because you can only pound on a mortar in front of you. I can’t say if Ifime-isi ritual was performed on Akaeze at birth because he was born in UK and not Nigeria.

“Meanwhile, our father, Obi Ofulue I never set his eyes on Akaeze before his demise in 1963 because Akaeze first arrived Ubulu-Uku in 1964 after Obi Ofulue I’s demise and subsequent installation of his father, Obi Edward Ofulue II. 

“If actually Ifime-isi was performed on Akaeze by his grandfather, I, therefore, begin to wonder why Ofulue II did not also cause the same rite to be performed on Akaeze’s first son, Noah, because Noah was already born before Obi Ofulue II died.

“A Crown Prince or a king is a symbol of authority in Ubulu-Uku kingdom. From his birth, he gets an ‘Izo Idayi’ ‘muna muna adie gbu ebenebe.’ The word Agbogidi is not honorary but a process that the Crown Prince passes through before becoming a king,” the source said. The source added that if bride price was paid for the white woman whose marriage to Ofulue II was contracted at a registry in London in 1956, “I stand to be corrected that no dowry was also paid on Noah’s mother because she is not a Nigerian. Most of us in this community were not aware of how Akaeze married his wife.”

On his part, Ejiofor said Okuchukwu remained the crown prince, who was still undergoing the processes of becoming the king.

“I am not Okuchukwu’s mouthpiece. I am talking because as an elder, I can’t keep quiet when things are going wrong. I am a man of integrity. The position of the king is not optional, and Okuchukwu knows it,” he said.

He stressed that the position as a king was not a matter of whether the heir apparent is interested, but that it is a position, which he must accept, insisting that Okuchukwu will certainly come back to claim what belongs to him.

“The kingmakers are already in court, and Noah’s name has been joined in that suit since his father is no more. It is just that the house has been taken over through the coup. If he (Okuchukwu) comes, any place he sits is his throne. 

He said: “Government does not appoint king for the people. There is a provision that establishes staff of office, which states that the edict does not supersede the customs and traditions of the people. Government cannot recognise without the traditional rulers’ council approving that you are a member. 

“Government’s own is just mere recognition. The traditional staff of office, which is recognised by our people is the Otulaka. Government’s staff of office is not permanent because they can withdraw if they discover that you fraudulently obtained it.”