The process toward conducting local government elections in Enugu State assumed a different dimension in Igboeze North Local Government Area of the state following the disagreement by youths who accused some members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of attempting to impose the incumbent chairman against the zoning arrangement that exists on the chairmanship position of the council.
The youths, under the umbrella of Egalu Umunano and Egalu Umuozzi, at an emergency general meeting at Ogrute, the council headquarters, said that it was the turn of Umunano zone to produce the chairman of the council, stating that the incumbent chairman, who is from Ozzi zone, should quash his ambition to go for another term.
The chairmen of the groups Hon. Samuel Enyanwuma for Umunano and Hon. Emenike Ojobe, said they would embark on protests and use available legal means to fight for Umunano, if the incumbent chairman insisted on retaining the chairmanship seat when it was clear that it was the turn of Umunano to occupy the office.
Enyanwuma, on behalf of the youths, called on Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to prevail on the incumbent chairman and ask tell him to drop his bid for a second term because it would truncate the zoning arrangement reached by stakeholders of the council.
“Not only that it is not the turn of Ozzi to produce Chairman, he cannot point to any single project he executed as chairman since January last year, so he has no reason to remain in that office after the expiration of his tenure as appointed caretaker chairman.”
Ojobe who noted that imposition is not acceptable to the PDP this time, went down memory lane to recall that the zoning arrangement is enshrined in a memorandum of understanding engineered by traditional rulers way back in 1988 and nobody has made any attempt to truncate it, insisting that the youths cannot fold their hands and allow some people to defile it for selfish interest.