People of Amawbia community, majorly the youths in Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State, on Friday, protested what they unanimously described as multiple crises creating disunity in their town.
The protesters numbering about 400 barricaded the State Government House along the Enugu-Onitsha Highway Awka, with placards with various inscriptions such as; Current Amawbia Town Union ATU corrupt, President General PG leading selfish agenda, election team hiden with agenda, Goddy Aronu urgently sold community land, we don’t want trouble in Amawbia, election will bring trouble, we want peace in Amawbia, new constitution before election, we want support from governor Soludo to create a better Amawbia, give us fresh electoral committee, we want election with new electoral committee, among others.
They were chanting songs of solidarity while calling on Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo to give them urgent attention by resolving the crisis rocking their community at the moment.
They list illegal sales of community land by some land grabbers in the town, inability to elect a Traditional ruler, a President General and factional leadership crisis as the major challenges disrupting the peace of the community.
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Speaking further in an interview with Journalists shortly after handing over the protest letter to the State Government officials, the leader of the protesters, Mr Emma Okafor, appealed to governor Soludo to set up a committee to look into the matters that have been fueling the crisis in the community.
According to Okafor, the purpose of this protest is to let the State Government know what Amawbia community is currently passing through under the leadership of Comrade Goddy Aronu, the President General of Amawbia community. We are also here to appeal to governor Soludo to cancel the forthcoming President General election scheduled to hold on the 30th December, 2024. We can not afford to conduct the election amidst a crisis. We want the PG election cancelled. Four out of the six contesters of the election has no confidence with the electoral committee, the process should be cancelled. Our community has been taken over by land grabbers, sponsored by people who do not want peace to reign in our town. We want peace. We want peace and unity in our community. The government should set up a committee to look into the matters.
“We are tired of imposition of President General on us by some few individuals who have been selling our lands and committing other atrocious acts in the town. We want the election to be put on hold until peace returned to our community, Mr Okafor concluded.
The government officials, while receiving the protest letter, promised the people that the governor would attend to their challenges in no time.
They also urged them to maintain peace to avoid breakdown of law and order.