Enugu State Commissioner for Rural Development, Chief Emeka Mamah, has accused a Special Assistant to the Governor of the state, Hon Luke Amobi Eze, of attempting to bribe him in a bid to influence the outcome of the elections into the executive council of Nguru Town Union.

Nguru, a community in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State, was granted an autonomous community status in 2017, by the State Governor, Rt Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, but there have been endless disputes over who has the powers to constitute the executive committee of the town union.

While the traditional ruler of the community, His Royal Highness, Igwe Linus Obayi, has insisted on handpicking the town union executives, some elite members of the community, led by Mr Ignatius Ugwu, a Director at the Works Department of the University of Nigeria, and Prof Ike Onyishi, Head, Department of Psychology of the same university, have insisted that delegates to the town union steering committee must be chosen either by consensus or election by their respective kindreds.

Attempts to form the town union in the past has been riddled in controversy, with petitions and acrimony flying from both sides of the divide, until Governor Ugwuanyi intervened with an Executive Order for the town union to be constituted in strict adherence to due process and the constitution of the community.

It was in compliance to this directive that Commissioner Emeka Mamah arrived at the community on January 29, 2022 for the election, but the rivalry between the contending forces forced him to postpone the election midway.

At a peace meeting convened the next morning, January 30, 2022, the commissioner berated the Governor’s aide who addresses himself as a “Special Assistant to Enugu State Governor on Media & Protocol and Official MC of Enugu State Government” for offering him an envelop to influence the elections.

Mamah said the attempted bribery was carried out by the aide, more popularly known as MC Elder, in connivance with a lady he didn’t mention her name.

“MC Elder offered me an envelope at the Total Filling Station, and I told him I am disappointed. I expressed my disappointed to him because I am not such a small person that MC Elder should attempt to bribe. I have helped a lot of people from Nguru and other people from Nsukka and I am not saying this for any political gain I am saying this to the younger generation because the future holds so much,” Mamah said.

He also accused the Governor’s aide of making and circulating videos pre-empting the outcome of the town union election when he knew that the election was yet to be concluded.

The Commissioner who assured the Igwe and the rest of the community that due process was going to be applied in choosing the remaining members of the town union, in line with the mandate of the peace-loving governor of the state, also enjoined the people to unite and embrace peace as that is the only thing that will bring peace and development to the community.

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