*Cabal, subjects sack monarch, instal regent
*It’s a taboo, nobody can depose me – HRM Awuluhu

By EMEM IDIO

OLUASIRI- CONTROVERSY  has hit the roof at Oluasari riverine community, Nembe Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, over the purported dethronement of the paramount ruler, HRM Iyerite Awuluhu, the Ola I Ibenyanaowei of Oluasiri clan by a group of politicians and subjects that want to control the largesse from oil companies and dictate to the monarch.

The splinter group has already installed a Regent, Ogara Baribote, to administer the affairs of the community.

HRM Awuluhu in reaction to his alleged deposition told Niger Delta Voice, that the cabal, which purported to have removed him, had no power to do so.

He said he was the defacto king of the community and his detractors, unfortunately, would not change tradition. 

Kick- out motion
Things came to a head in the community April 28 when at a meeting convened by the elders, chiefs and people of Oluasiri to jaw-jaw on the security challenges and other issues besetting the riverine community took a new dimension, as infuriated villagers voted to overthrow their monarch for supposedly ruling them in exile and his alleged insensitivity to their problem.

The spectacle actually unfolded after the assembly resolved to set up a vigilante group to secure the community. An indigene of the community, Duomo Gabriel, apparently peeved at the many unsettled problems confronting the community, moved a motion passing a vote of no confidence in HRH Awululu, who was not in attendance.

Another villager, Ebiegberi Akari, seconded the motion, which the assembly unanimously affirmed through a voice vote. With a vote of no-confidence hanging on the monarch, a community leader, Chief John Otama, rose and radically moved a motion nominating a new Regent, Ogara Baribote. One of his kindred, Mr. Joel Isaiah, seconded the motion and the people collectively ratified it with a thunderous voice vote.

  Installation of new Regent
Without much ado, elders of the community ‘chalked’ the new Regent, while youths and women, who supported the decision declared the paramount ruler an “absentee” monarch.

They claimed that he administered the community as a sole administrator with his Council of Chiefs and Advisory Council, accusing him of selfishness and neglecting his responsibility to them.

Voice of the people
A youth leader, Comrade Braide Fredrick, described the action as a true expression of the will of the people, noting that the villagers elected to take their destiny in their hands by saving the community from appalling leadership.

Also speaking, an elder of the community, Firstborn Tom, said the people took the action because they have been without leadership being that the paramount ruler had abandoned his responsibilities to the people. 

Two mothers, Mrs. Ala Bert and Mrs. Marian Daniel, also said the monarch had lost touch with his people, adding that his inconsistent leadership polarized the people.

I’ll not fail you- Regent
In his remark, the newly- elected Regent, Baribote, said he faced a huge task of reuniting the people and holding fort until a substantive monarch was elected.

He urged the people to bury their differences and support him in the difficult task of reconciliation, assuring that he would not betray the confidence reposed in him by the community.

Taboo
The embattled monarch, HRM Awululu, however, said it was a taboo to remove a crowned king in Nembe and debunked the allegations leveled against him by a cabal that wants to control the resources of the community.

“They say they are passing votes of no confidence in me, for what? Did I steal money? Did I embezzle money? Did I rape somebody? Was I convicted, are they the kingmakers? If they were the king makers, at the time of my installation, why did they not protest? They should have gone to court. And the law says that when I am presented to the governor, and if after 90 days, there is no objection and the governor has stamp his seal on my certificate, even the possibility of the king makers withdrawing me is no longer possible.

“In Nembe tradition and customs, when a king is installed and has performed all the traditional rights, he rules for life. It is a taboo for someone to tell a king that we have removed you.    It is never done; you can go and find out for yourself,” he said.

I don’t rule in exile
The king added: “When the unanimously swore that I should be the King of Oluasiri, I promised them that I will spend two weeks in every month in the community, since my coronation till this crisis, I have been spending two and sometimes three weeks in the community. I want to tell you that all those who claim that they are more Oluasiri than others do not even have houses and have never slept one night in the community.

“Monarchs are no longer operating as it was in the past where he stays 365 days in the palace, particularly in the Niger Delta; no king stays 30 days in a month in their palace. The assertion that I rule the place in exile is a fallacy and it simply does not hold water. I do not rule in exile, I am on ground and that is why you see the other people from the other side reacting,” he asserted.

Why they are fighting me
Explaining why he feels he is being persecuted, he said: “What disappointed them (cabal) is that when I came on board.    I told them that I belong to nobody and I belong to everybody; that I have dropped politics and that I will never reason like a politician and that I am going to rule with the fear of God.

“Unknown to me that they have an agenda and wanted to control and direct the affairs of the community and share booty from oil companies, and when they did not have that access, they started blackmailing me.

“The remote problem was how to control the resources, the immediate problem there is an organ in Oluasiri established by the elders of the council even before my enthronement called, Oluasiri Development Union, ODU, and Oluasiri Youth Federation, OYF, and because Oluasiri comprises more than 50 towns, villages and settlements.

“Principally, all the positions of these two organizations are rotated among all the villages. Even before I came on board, each time the tenures of the ODU and OYF wants to expire, there will be crisis in Oluasiri because these organs control the resources and interface with the multinational oil companies. They are saying that the politicians must decide the composition of the executives of these organs and I refused to compromise.

“By Nembe tradition, Oluasiri is not an autonomous community, it is a sub- kingdom or clan of  Opu Nembe- Bassambiri  and was  founded by elders and chiefs of Nembe Bassambiri over 200 years ago and all natives of Oluasiri belong to one of the nine Chieftaincy Houses in Nembe-Bassambiri, therefore, the chiefs of Nembe controls the  communities.

Appeal
“My appeal is that we are in the era of wisdom; my advice to my people is that they should go about their normal and lawful business and tow the path of peace as the matter will be resolved constitutionally.
  “I was traditionally chalked and installed on June 12, 2009 by His Royal Majesty, King Dr. I. M. Iwowari, Amanyanabo of Nembe-Bassambiri, of blessed memory. There was no protest or argument, and on December 5, 2009, I was formally coronated.
  “Today, few politicians, who do not even have a mud house in Oluasiri have constituted themselves to form an opposition simply because I failed to follow their dictates, and are saying that I passed through the back door,” he added.