By Anayo Okoli

 Umuahia-ABIA State governor, Chief Theodore Orji, has  pardoned three traditional rulers in the state  suspended from office last year for alleged involvement in kidnapping and other criminal activities.

The governor confessed that there was no evidence of complicity or wrong doing against the royal fathers by the police.

Consequently, he announced that their positions as traditional rulers had been restored them.
The affected traditional rulers were Eze Nwabiaraije Eneogwe; Eze Dick Onwukwe and Eze Reuben Karawusa.
Governor Theodore Orji announced this when he addressed traditional rulers in the state at their secretariat in Umuahia.

Orji said the government was striving to preserve the sanctity and respect of the traditional institution, saying traditional rulers in the state must be accorded respect.

He warned aggrieved traditional rulers in the state against forming a parallel body, different from the traditional rulers’ council.

The governor told the royal fathers in the state that the payment of the N18,000 minimum wage would affect the execution of other developmental projects.