Osu Caste Syndrome: Group Alleges Connivance Of Enugu Commissioner To Marginalise Them
Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi[/caption]
Some members of Obuno-Uno community in Akpugo, Nkanu West LGA of Enugu state, have accused the state’s commissioner for chieftaincy matters, Barr Fide Ani, of conniving with some elements in the community to deny them the right to run for the chieftaincy position of the community over matters relating to their alleged status as Osu.
The leader of the group, Prince Okwudiri Agbo, said, “All our pleas for equity have not been listened to by the commissioner who has shown favours to a section in our community that claims to be the authentic natives of our community. My people have suffered humiliation and political discrimination for forty years. The obnoxious constitution they wrote to discriminate against us in 1976 was set aside by the Agbani Customary Court and the Enugu High Court. We are law-abiding and want election into the position to be democratic.”
The state governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, had, while reacting to the recent protest by the group, directed the immediate abolition of all harm¬ful traditional practices in the state.
“Nigeria’s constitution places all Nigerians on equal pedes¬tal, and the laws of Enugu state abolish all forms of Osu Caste practices. Slavery and segrega¬tion have been abolished and as far as the state gov¬ernment is concerned, we do not recognise Osu Caste system. If you know you are holding anybody down in the name of whatever belief that is not godly, please release such per¬son and let them be free. It is satanic,” he said.
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Efforts to speak with the commissioner did not yield results at the press time.
