The Executive Chairman of Andoni Local Government Area, Erastus Charles Awortu, has been installed as ‘Ogwu Ibot Eso 1 of Obolo land’, meaning the great peace maker of his people. That was the aftermath of the resolution from the Unyeada monarch, King Israel Ujamaden, Otuo IX and his entire cabinet to install and recognise Hon. Awortu for bringing peace and unity to Unyeada Kingdom after more than ten years of chaos.
In the same vein, the traditional ruler of Unyeada Ancient Kingdom comprising of seventy-two 72 communities, has been honoured with the United Nations’ Peace Ambassador Award for restoring peace to Unyeada and Andoni Local Government Area after more than ten years of restlessness. Presenting the award, the representative of United Nations in Nigeria and the international director, His Eminence, Ambassador Chidi Ehirodo, advised the audience to follow peace with all men. “These are the true items and once they are delivered to any person whose nomination has received our approval, automatically his status in the public changes,” Ehirodo said.
Speaking to journalists at the event, the president general Obolo Youth Coalition, Hon. Ijong-ama Mkpong Amon, expressed satisfaction for the recognition and installation of the chairman, given his prowess at reconciling the different warring groups in Unyeada, Andoni in Obolo Nation. He went further to extol the virtues of the king of Unyeada who, according to him, fought gallantly to ensure that Unyeada kingdom does not go into extinction over the activities of cult groups and pledged an unflinching support to the celebrant.
“You will agree with me that for the past ten to fifteen years ago, you cannot have such a programme like this here in Andoni where illustrious sons and daughters will honour events in Andoni with little security manpower to organise the programme. That is to say that we are enjoying relative peace in Andoni and according to our elders, they used to say that to whom much is expected, much is given. The local government chairman has done enough, so we have to give him as much as we can. I mean massive support so that we can continue to enjoy the peace. You can see that so many houses in this community look like abandoned buildings for more than ten-fifteen years. That is the disadvantage of communal crisis. But today I am happy. Like me that is the youth president of Obolo Ethnic Nationality, you won’t believe me that after like six years, this is my first time of coming back to my own ancient community, it is as bad as that but today because of the peace led by the local government chairman and every other stakeholder in Andoni, I am here with just only few friends and others including you the media. Andoni is peaceful and investors should come and invest in Andoni.”
He further appealed to the entire Andoni youths to accept the offer of peace which he described as priceless.
