Akwa Ibom State Governor Umo Eno has pleaded with the royal fathers who are opposing the new Traditional Rulers Council (TRC) law to follow the road of peace.
In order to have a thorough conversation about the issue and come up with a long-lasting solution, he pleaded with them to drop the lawsuit they filed against the state government.
Recall that once the governor and state House of Assembly approved the new TRC statute Cap 155, things became chaotic among the royal fathers.
The new legislation was intended to disregard the long-standing rotating agreement among all the paramount monarchs in the state and provide life presidency to the Oku Ibom Ibibio, the state’s biggest ethnic group.
The governor called a meeting with the TRC in the Exco Chambers on Tuesday and encouraged them to put their feelings aside and consider the future in an impartial manner because he was concerned about the heat and tension the new law was causing.
He also criticized the royal fathers for previously declining his invitations to peace discussions, saying that their decision “may set a precedent for an unending spiral of insubordination across the leadership spectrum” in addition to being an act of insubordination.
“As the Governor of this State, I cannot and will not permit strife to persist, and if you check, that it has persisted is not of my making,” the statement said in part.
“I extended an invitation to a meeting on September 23, 2023, in the morning. The purpose of the meeting was to give me a chance to hear the grievances of individuals who were impacted and for us to come to a conclusion as a group that would benefit everyone. I waited for hours for the impacted Paramount Rulers to arrive for the conference, but they never did. All of these conflicts would not have started if that meeting had taken place.
“I’m here to let you know that I’m willing to talk to you about this and to travel beside you down the route that must lead to the goal of peace and togetherness. However, there is currently a barrier in the form of the related litigation. Any in-depth discussion or intervention will be subject to the ongoing litigation. I thus kindly request that you remove this legal barrier, put an end to all political media campaigns, and come back here so that we may settle this matter amicably and to everyone’s satisfaction.
