The union exonerated the council boss of any wrongdoing, saying the allegations was a mere rumour being peddled round-town by desperate individuals who want to hijack the ancient throne of the community.
While decrying the desperation of certain individual parading as Mburubu Igwe-Elect and bragging of gifting N100 million to the council boss, just to tarnish his good image,, MTU President General, Chief Emmanuel Edeh urged the Chairman to remain steadfast in discharging his official duties, even as he assured that the election of the next traditional ruler of the community will follow due process, devoid of rancour and bickering.
Meanwhile speaking amidst the speculation the chairman of Nkanu East LGA, Hon Okey Edeh had denied receiving any bribe to overturn the rotational sequence of electing traditional ruler in Mburubu, Enugu State.
The chairman, said “I did not collect, has not collected and will never collect bribe from anybody,” as was recently portrayed in a series of online publications,
According to him Mburubu General Assembly visited the council secretariat and presented Jerry Patrick Onukaibe as the Igwe-Elect of Mburubu. As duty calls, they were received, the Mburubu General Assembly handed over an MoU to the Council and, subsequently, a letter of notification was transmitted to the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matter,
“In line with the law, local government is not empowered to crown a traditional ruler but duty-bound to receive any elect-Igwe presented to the council by the people of his community for onward transmission to the State Government for further action. So anybody talking about local government crowning or imposing Igwe in any community is ignorant of the law” he said.
He said, just like every other groups from communities in Nkanu East Local Government who presented candidates as Igwe-Elect, he has no special preference when a group came from Mburubu to present a candidate to him, but bidded by law to transmit letter of notification of the visit and interest to the State Commissioner.
The council boss added, “how can I collect N100 million for performing my official duties as required by law, I did not collect, has not collected and will never collect bribe from anybody whosoever and for whatever purposes”.
He said the allegation leveled against him is injurious falsehood designed purposely to tarnish his long-established good reputation.
He stated, “I make bold to point out that, as the innuendoes in the false report suggest, I never seek favour or collect any gratification or kickback directly or on my behalf.”
The Chairman said he was concerned that the allegation would have a damaging effect on his image and vowed to get to the root of the matter even as he declared that he would not be intimidated into shying away from carrying out his responsibility as local government chairman.