The process leading to the selection of the new paramount ruler of Igala kingdom, would have been smooth-sailing soon after completion of the burial rites of the late monarch, HRH Michael Idakwo Ameh Oboni II, in November, 2020, if not for the sentiments smuggled in by Etemahi and the Igala Mela kingmakers. The report was further muddled up by the self-appointed review panel introduced by Igala Area Traditional Council (IATC) headed by HRH Chief Boniface Usman Musa, the Ojogba of Ife kingdom.

This was compounded by the four ruling houses and their refusal to comply with the extant law and gazette by the Kogi State Government that was unambiguous as to who emerges Attah Igala designate: this should emanate from Aju Ameachor ruling house, as every prince from the other three ruling houses threw in the ring of who becomes the next Attah Igala.

Etemahi and the kingmakers whose primacy is to resolve the legal implications and traditional provisions of the process of ascension to the throne, suddenly became willing tools in the hands of many of the contestants, as well as the urge to rake in money for personal aggrandisement as N50,000 was fixed as application fee.

This palpable situation led to the receipt of application from about 16 princes from all of the four ruling houses of Aju Akogu, Aju Ocholi, Aju Akwu and Aju Ameachor in clear disregard to the provisions of the extant law.

With all this ugly development and lawlessness on the part of Etemahi and Igala Mela kingmakers, Achadu and IATC, the entire Aju Ameachor in Igala kingdom met and accepted the choice of Prince Samuel Opaluwa as the choice of the entire family after he was interviewed, screened, nominated and forwarded to Etemahi, in line with the extant law and traditional provisions, only for the Etemahi and the kingmakers to do otherwise.

During the enlarged meeting of Aju Ameachor ruling house, the main contender, Prince Alaji Matthew Opaluwa conceded to the decision of the elders of Aju Ameachor’s position on the condition that Prince Ocholi Opaluwa did not go further in his inordinate ambition, with Okoliko Opaluwa, the youngest in absentia (see video).

The premise of arriving at a hurriedly packaged script by the younger Ocholi was fraudulently set between Etemahi and his Igala Mela kingmakers who, more or else, coerced the Achadu for onward transmission to the Igala Area Traditional Council, even though stalled by it's obvious faulty processes, as he was nominated by four members of Oguche-Akpa family and not the wider and majority of Aju Ameachor ruling house scattered all around Igala land.

What the law says is not a segment of Oguche-Akpa's family or a segment of Aju Ameachor ruling house, but a collective decision by the entire ruling house.

But the decision of the Igala Area Traditional Council to review the anomaly was also shrouded in illegality as there is no provision of the new law that warrants a legal teeth to the IATC to scrutinise its own decision that resulted in further confusion as the desperate Prince Matthew Alaji, who has no Aju Ameachor nomination in the first place, that already had the backing of money bags, prominent Igala sons and daughters in position of authority that want to cash in on the panel’s report took advantage of the creed of the panel, who rather look at the evidences of nominations and witness testimony before it, including video evidence of the Aju Ameachor selection process, rather turned a blind eye to all the facts and followed the smell of money.

The review panel went out of its way to usurp the power of the state government by not only recommending to the council of chiefs, but announced the winner - as if it was a political contest - both in the print and electronic media as well as the social media, all of which carried the news to the embarrassment of the state government.

Prince Matthew Alaji Opaluwa joined the race after conceding defeat at the enlarged Aju Ameachor ruling house family meeting, and nobody whatsoever nominated him, except his smuggled Alacha Egbunu, who cannot state his own age, claiming different dates of birth and fraudulent and contradictory records.

Rather than revisit the earlier decision of the Aju Ameachor ruling house that conformed with the law and tradition, which ratified the selection of the Prince Samuel Opaluwa, it became a proverbial scenario that metamorphosed from the highly revered Etemahi, Igala Mela kingmakers, Achadu to IATC that says: “An elder invited to identify a yam tuber asks, is it a yam tuber?” What an aberration.

But another Igala adage opines that “What had defied solutions, must also concede to solutions.” The ball is now in the court of the Kogi State government via its components with the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs advising appropriately, given the series of petitions rolling out against the self-centred stance of Etemahi, Igala Mela kingmakers, Achadu and IATC panel and reports. The end of the current stalemate is still far.

The pending and critical issues at stake now is “Nomination” with the reports forwarded to the state government by both Etemahi/kingmakers and IATC review panel, what next is to x-ray even the earlier process and procedures in tandem with the provisions of the law and tradition.

In all of these, it is only Prince Samuel Opaluwa that met all the criteria both in law and tradition (see video).

We call on the state government to do what is right, review the contrived report of the IATC and subject the entire process to the required legal process, the office of the attorney-general, and the state Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs must take a deeper look and do what is right in the sight of God and men of good conscience.

Having convened an enlarged Aju Ameachor ruling house family meeting by the head of the ruling house - who is still alive - that selected and ratified Prince Samuel Opaluwa, after he was screened, interviewed and nominated on 19/11/2020 as the eldest contestant: a retired director of Central Bank of Nigeria who worked meritoriously and retired unblemished, never found wanting as a professional and in social conduct. He, no doubt, has earned above the required educational qualifications, and worked and retired from the noble banking profession.

He, Samuel Opaluwa, remains the only credible and qualified candidate for consideration for the revered Attah Igala kingdom.

•Maji Noah writes from Abejukolo, Kogi State.