Gov. Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State
06 June 2016, Yenagoa – Controversy has hit the roof at Oluasari riverine community, Nembe Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, over the purported dethronement of the paramount ruler, HRM Iyerite Awuluhu, the Ola I Ibenyanaowei of Oluasiri clan by a group of politicians and subjects that want to control the largesse from oil companies and dictate to the monarch.
The splinter group has already installed a Regent, Ogara Baribote, to administer the affairs of the community.
HRM Awuluhu in reaction to his alleged deposition told Niger Delta Voice, that the cabal, which purported to have removed him, had no power to do so.
He said he was the defacto king of the community and his detractors, unfortunately, would not change tradition.
Kick- out motion
Things came to a head in the community April 28 when at a meeting convened by the elders, chiefs and people of Oluasiri to jaw-jaw on the security challenges and other issues besetting the riverine community took a new dimension, as infuriated villagers voted to overthrow their monarch for supposedly ruling them in exile and his alleged insensitivity to their problem.
The spectacle actually unfolded after the assembly resolved to set up a vigilante group to secure the community. An indigene of the community, Duomo Gabriel, apparently peeved at the many unsettled problems confronting the community, moved a motion passing a vote of no confidence in HRH Awululu, who was not in attendance.
Another villager, Ebiegberi Akari, seconded the motion, which the assembly unanimously affirmed through a voice vote.
With a vote of no-confidence hanging on the monarch, a community leader, Chief John Otama, rose and radically moved a motion nominating a new Regent, Ogara Baribote. One of his kindred, Mr. Joel Isaiah, seconded the motion and the people collectively ratified it with a thunderous voice vote.
- Vanguard
