Inside Benue’s 367 vacant traditional stools

Chief Matthew Ebi presently occupies the Alegwu stool of Edikwu district in Ugbokpo of Apa Local Government Area of Benue State on acting capacity. The Alegwu stool is one among 367 traditional stools in the state which are currently vacant and need to be replaced with new monarchs. Special Adviser on Bureau for Local Government […]

Chief Matthew Ebi presently occupies the Alegwu stool of Edikwu district in Ugbokpo of Apa Local Government Area of Benue State on acting capacity.

The Alegwu stool is one among 367 traditional stools in the state which are currently vacant and need to be replaced with new monarchs.

Special Adviser on Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Barrister Kenneth Achabo, had earlier this week made the disclosure while answering questions from journalists in Makurdi.

Achabo said people had been on acting capacity for some of the vacant stools since the death of the occupants, while other  stools are mired in either controversies or conflicts.

It was based on one of such conflicts that Ebi was appointed by the state government over a year ago to act as the traditional head of the Edikwu people until matters surrounding the throne are amicably resolved for the emergence of a substantive monarch for the area.

His appointment had followed a renewed communal crisis which claimed the lives of at least 13 people in the area in 2020 after some contenders to the throne allegedly fought dirty.

Some local sources had traced the history of the chieftaincy tussle over the Alegwu stool to 1994, noting that the dispute led to loss of several lives as certain contenders to the stool refused to accept the kingmakers’ choice of the late Alegwu, Chief Imoni Otokpa, who died in 2018.

Before Ebi’s appointment, the acting traditional head of Edikwu, Chief David Imoni Otokpa, who reigned in his father’s stead, had hinted that the matter was in court. He was later suspended by the state government to pave way for investigation into the matter.

Other contenders to the Alegwu throne were also ordered to rest their ambitions until the outcome of the investigation, especially as the incessant crises over the chieftaincy affair which led the Benue State Government to convene a peace meeting headed by the Deputy Governor, Engr Benson Abounu on May 25, 2020 to put an end to the rancour, yielded little or no result.

The Council Chairman of Apa, Ekoche Ameh, told our correspondent on telephone that the state government appointed a neutral person (Ebi) pending when the committee set up to address the matter completes its work.

He said the government took the decision after last year’s killing of many people in the affected area, adding that the suspended chiefs and contenders to the throne would hold their peace as investigation into the matter continues.

“In the end, the state government might decide to restore the stool to either parties involved or settle for a new person entirely,” the council chairman said.

Apart from Alegwu stool, there are many vacant traditional positions existing in the state occasioned by conflicts, especially, from the Idoma area traditional council.

An insider who preferred anonymity at the Bureau of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs in Makurdi, told our correspondent that as at 2019, the total of 227 traditional stools in Idomaland were vacant and remain so presently.

The source posited that as at July this year, the Tivland traditional stools recorded 140 vacancies, bringing both numbers of existing vacancies in the state to 367.

All of these vacancies according to the insider, which could be more by now are occupied on acting capacity and almost all of them have acting heads, with exception of the third-class stool of Akpa in Otukpo LGA.

It was also gathered that some of the places where stools have been on acting capacity for over 20 years,  contradicts the state’s chieftaincy law, and risk stoppage of salary if enforcement of the law which prescribed only three months to fill a vacuum had been fully implemented.

Our correspondent reports that there are also stools which have been on acting capacity for as long as 10 to 15 years, such as the district head of Ulayi who died in 2010 and that of Agila who died in 2000.

In the same vein, stools of more than 10 monarchs who were variously killed by armed bandits in Sankera – comprising of three local government areas of Ukum, Kastina-Ala and Logo, have remained vacant.

Among those killed by gunmen over five years ago were the traditional head of Ushir Kindred, Chief Yimaorga Asogo of Shitile Clan in Kastina Ala and the traditional ruler of Mbayongo district in same Kastina Ala, Tyooor Awuha Alev.

Also, a traditional ruler of Tse-Ancha community in Makurdi LGA was killed by gunmen earlier this year and another from Ochoro in Konshisha LGA recently hacked to the death during a communal crisis.

However, the period of acting on those stools have since elapsed yet some of the children of the deceased and those enthroned by appointment still inhabit such thrones.

The Special Adviser on Chieftaincy Affairs, Barr Achabo, explained that the need to fill up the vacancies was why Governor Samuel Ortom held a meeting with stakeholders from the Idoma axis (Zone C) earlier this week, and similar meetings would be held with the other two Tiv speaking districts – Zones A and B – of the state.

“There are issues to be tackled. We need to fill vacancies in Zone C and indeed in the whole Benue State as there are over 300 vacant traditional stools. People have been acting in some of those positions for up to 20 years and that isn’t good enough.

“So, the essence of the meeting is to meet stakeholders to resolve certain knotty issues such as excess kindred heads and beaded chiefs. The Benue State government has set up a committee to report back within four weeks. We are now facing the issue in Zone C and will also do same in Zones A and B,” he said.

Achabo stressed that those knotty issues which couldn’t be immediately addressed during the meeting necessitated the formation of the high powered committee to get to the bottom of the matter and report back to the governor in a month’s time before further actions can be taken.

The Special Adviser had in another fora on June 23, 2021, intimated that his administration had installed nine traditional rulers since coming on board nearly eleven months ago.

“Benue has about 2000 traditional rulers on the government’s payroll,” Achabo had added.

His predecessor, Titus Zam, had in the past noted that chieftaincy tussle was very common in Idoma area of the state just like land disputes are common with the Tiv people which in the estimation of some people may have accounted for the huge vacancies.

Nevertheless, as the state government moves to tackle issues of the vacancies, it remains uncertain how Governor Samuel Ortom’s administration would be able to handle all of the matters – some believed to be too hard a nut to crack – and soon too.