The traditional ruler of Umunya in Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra State, Igwe Chris Onyekwuluje has raised alarm over his life saying he that he has been threatened a total number of seven times.

He fingered some members of his community, mostly from the Odumodu quarters of wanting to kill him.

Onyekwuluje said: “My life had been threatened seven times by my traducers who had resorted to calumny to tarnish my hard-earned reputation.”

The traditional ruler spoke on the heels of an accusation by the people of Odumodu village in Umunya, who said the traditional ruler should be held responsible for any calamity on any of their leaders.

Speaking through the Secretary, Odumodu Ebenabo Improvement Union, Sunday Esedo, the community said the monarch was being economical with the truth.

They insisted that his claim that he is being hounded is not true adding that the monarch is rather the one hunting for their lives.

The locals counted the monarch’s crime to include, high-handedness, land-grabbing, indiscriminate harassment, brutality and arrest of members of the community.

Esedo said: “We are ready to put our lives in the line than allow the monarch forcefully take our inheritance from us.

“We’re here to address the allegations raised by the monarch that we’ve been planning to assassinate him. We want to let the whole world know that His Royal Highness is not asserting the obvious. Nobody in Odumodu has ever planned to kill him which he knows too well.

“He moves around with security. The DSS (Department of State Security) men, the police are all in his convoy. All members of the vigilante sleep in his palace.

“Personally, I’ve been receiving threat messages on plans to attack me. I want to tell the whole world that if anything happens to me or any member of the executive, the Igwe should be held accountable.

“We’re ready to die. Let him kill all of us before snatching our lands from us.”

He further disclosed that the monarch had in 2015, made similar allegation against the entire Odumodu community which led to the arrest of the former chairman and five of his executives.

While saying that they were at the Oyi division police station on Wednesday at the instance of the DPO where they were arrested and detained for three hours, he observed that it happened before they were even issued with arrest and arraignment notice.

According to him, it took the intervention of the Deputy Commissioner of Police before they were released after they had protested.

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