By Tony Okafor, Awka
Human Monster, like Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little; day by day. Again, Societies often undergo developmental growth either morally, technically, economically and otherwise, culminating into evolution.
Perhaps, Nimo Owelle, known as Nimo for short, in the Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State,
is now pondering over the above
axioms of the theory of evolution after the incident that happened in that community on Sunday, September 23,2024.
The incident happened at the famous Egwegwe Square. The occasion was the unveiling of the Nimo Town Development Union(NTDU) Youth Wing first edition of its youth empowerment scheme of N2m.
Under the programme, eight youths, two each, selected from the four quarters of Nimo, received the sum of N250,000 to support their various business endeavours.
The gesture, the RAZOR NEWS gathered was aimed at dissuading the youths of the town from wallowing in self-pity due to unexamined life; youthful exuberance and sundry social vices owing to lack of value and meaningful engagement.
The Nimo youth leadership also gathered on that occasion to commission the Nimo Skill Acquisition Centre.
Thus, before 12 noon on Sunday, September 24, the youth of the community had peopled the Egwegwe Square to witness the epoch event.
As the music renditions of Oliver De Coque and Osadebe trended, the organizers were distributing T-Shirts to the youth attendees to adorn as uniform wear for the day. The spirit was high. Food and drinks were surplusly packed by the corner, waiting for the event to officially commence.
Like the flash of the lightning, a parallel youth group surfaced from where only God knew and disrupted the event.
Ironically, there was no atom of resistance from the youth organisers, everybody scampered for safety; canopies and chairs for the function dismantled and carried away by the opposition group.
The onslaught was led by a parallel youth leader in the area said to have obtained a PhD degree newly ( name withheld). There was no presence of security operatives on the occasion- both local vigilantes and the police. Thus, the attackers had a field day and ranted away after a few minutes.
Speculation was that they moved to the palace of the traditional ruler of the community, Igwe
Owelle Maxi Oliobi to register their grievances. Visitors and the orgnisers were dumbfounded.
It was gathered that the opposition youth group in the community was being funded abroad by a United States of America-based indigene of Nimo who was disgruntled because his father was not given an Ichie title by the Nimo Monarch.
” He approached Owelle to give his father the Ichie title. Owelle told him that the process would begin from his quarter . He went to start off the process in his quarter and failed. The father was rejected for the title in his village. He came up with a N5 million bribe to further facilitate the title for the father, his bribe was rejected. Because of that, he began a war against the community through some youth,” a source told our correspondent.
There was also another version of the story that the opposition youth group got disgruntled because of an alleged mismanagement of a communal land in the area by the town’s leadership,hence their revolt against the community.
It was gathered that the opposition youth had recently launched an attack on the home of a titled man, Emma Ndubusi, in the area and vandalized everything on sight to ventilate their anger.
Not deterred by the Sunday attack, the organisers of the youth empowerment programme reconvened later the same day and continued their programme after the assailants had left.
Speaking during the empowerment programme, the President General of Nimo Town Development Union, Youth Wing, Mr Gold Obiefuna, said the programme was to key into the state government’s efforts in youth empowerment and development.
He cautioned against actions that would retrogress the on ongoing development in the community.
The beneficiaries of the empowerment were : Ugo Ngukor and
Doms Ezeoke from Etiti-Nimo Village.
Akunna Kingsley Chidi and
Melody Fredrick Chukwuma from
Ifite-enu Village . Uchenna Anyadiegwu and Ikejide John Paul from Egbengwu Village and Uchenna Edochie;Fabian Ogbuabana from Ifiteani Village.
It was gathered that the Nimo Youth Empowerment programme was preceded the previous day by the inauguration of the caretaker committees of the youth wings of four communities in Awka by the President of ASATU youth wing, Hon Ken Okolie, who made it clear that the ASATU constitution provided for the conduct of youth leadership elections by ASATU but that where elections were not conducted the PG of the concerned community had the power to appoint a caretaker committee that would be operating pending the conduct of elections.
The NTDU Youth Wing leadership was later blessed by the Dean of Nimo Catholic Deanery, Rev Fr Alfred Anazodo, at St Vincent’s Parish Nimo.
Before the Sunday incident could end, the opposition youth had regrouped and stormed the Egwegwe Square for a second attack, forcing the occasion to end abruptly.
A concerned native who spoke on condition of anonymity quipped,”The fear of this is let this youth restiveness in Nimo not to metamorphose into the type of insurgence in some parts of the South-East that has become hydraheaded monster and unable to be controlled.”
