Anambra State Governor, Prof. Charles Soludo, has presented a certificate of recognition to Barrister John Nzekwesili Nweke as the traditional ruler of Nsugbe Community in Anambra East Local Government Area, amid an unresolved legal and community dispute over the process through which he emerged.
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Nweke, who is the elder brother of the Anambra State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Tobechukwu Nweke, SAN, was recognised by the governor on Tuesday, two days after a controversial traditional stool election which had been the subject of a subsisting order of the Anambra State High Court.
“Respectfully, Barrister John Nzekwesili Nweke is now officially the Igwe of Nsugbe,” Soludo declared during a meeting with traditional rulers at the Government House before presenting him with the certificate of recognition.
The development has deepened controversy in the community, where disagreement over the method of selecting a new traditional ruler had already resulted in litigation, petitions to President Bola Tinubu, protests and the eventual relocation of the election from Nsugbe to the Anambra East Local Government headquarters in Otuocha.
The dispute centres principally on whether the traditional ruler should be selected through a delegate system or by universal adult suffrage within Ivite Quarter, which, under the community’s zoning arrangement, was due to produce the next traditional ruler.
Opponents of the delegate arrangement approached the High Court of Anambra State, Awka Judicial Division, on July 8, 2026.
On August 5, Justice Jude Obiora granted an interlocutory injunction directing the parties to maintain the status quo existing as of July 8 pending the amicable or judicial determination of the substantive suit.
The court stated, among other things, that no party, whether acting personally, through agents, servants, privies or other persons acting on their authority, should “organise, conduct, supervise, conclude or give effect to any election or selection” of the next Igwe of Nsugbe from Ivite Quarter pending determination of the action.
However, tensions rose again towards the end of August after a group known as Concerned Indigenes and Stakeholders in Nsugbe alleged that the state Commissioner for Local Government and Community Matters, Vincent Ezeaka, suspended the elected executive of the Nsugbe Development Union on August 28 and constituted a caretaker committee which was subsequently involved in arranging another selection exercise.
In a petition to President Tinubu, the group accused Ezeaka and the Attorney-General of engaging in what it described as unlawful and contemptuous actions connected with plans to proceed with the traditional ruler selection despite the court order.
At least 13 stakeholders signed the petition, including Senator Tony Nwoye, who represents Anambra North; former senator Alphonsus Igbeke; and Nsugbe Development Union Secretary-General, Uzoechina Benedict.
The group also asked the President to investigate what it described as a possible conflict of interest arising from the Attorney-General’s familial relationship with one of the contenders.
The allegations have, however, been denied by the Attorney-General.
Tobechukwu Nweke, SAN, maintained that he had played no role in organising the election and accused Senator Nwoye of attempting to use allegations against him for political purposes.
“I have not been involved in this process from the beginning to the end. I have been minding my business, discharging my duties as the attorney-general of the state,” he said.
“But Senator Tony wants to use blackmail to gain political points by always accusing me of interfering in the process.”
The Attorney-General acknowledged being an indigene of Nsugbe and receiving information about events in the community but maintained that he had no operational role in the selection process.
He explained that the earlier town union and electoral committee had planned an August 8 election using the delegate system, a method opposed by Nwoye and other stakeholders.
According to him, the government had initially approved the delegate arrangement forwarded by the community leadership, but following the controversy, Ezeaka suspended the town union executive and established a caretaker committee.
He said the caretaker committee subsequently engaged stakeholders and resolved the disagreement in favour of universal adult suffrage, which had been advocated by Nwoye’s group.
The Attorney-General also argued that the August 30 exercise was different from the August 8 election originally restrained by the court.
“If you look at the order of the court, the election the court stopped was the election for 8 August being organised by the town union and that electoral committee.
“That’s not the election that they are holding now,” he said.
Sunday’s exercise was nevertheless met with protests at the original venue in Nsugbe, where hundreds of community members reportedly chanted “no election.”
Security operatives were said to have fired tear gas as tensions escalated.
Nwoye alleged that more than 100 members of the Agunachamba vigilante group had been deployed to intimidate residents opposing the exercise, an allegation that has not been independently established.
He described the protest against the election as “victory for constitutional democracy and rule of law.”
The election at the original venue was subsequently stopped following intervention by a police team led by Assistant Commissioner of Police Ibrahim Ezekiel.
However, organisers later relocated the exercise to the Anambra East Local Government headquarters in Otuocha, where the election was eventually conducted.
The Attorney-General defended the relocation, saying it became necessary to avoid a breakdown of law and order after Nwoye and his supporters allegedly disrupted the original venue.
“He went there with thugs, threatened to disrupt the process. The security people were there. They tried to manage the situation, but no way.
“So, the caretaker committee decided to leave to avoid breakdown of law and order, and they have now relocated to a different venue,” he said.
The Local Government and Community Matters Commissioner, Ezeaka, subsequently defended the state government’s position.
He argued that the Anambra State Government was not a party to the pending suit and maintained that the court order did not prohibit the government from establishing a caretaker committee to oversee the community’s affairs.
Ezeaka acknowledged that the government authorised the election after receiving information from the caretaker committee that the internal disagreement had been resolved.
“The caretaker committee we set up wrote back saying that they have made peace in their community. We said, ‘if you have settled, then go ahead and hold your election,’ and they did,” he said.
Asked whether the claimed settlement of the community dispute could override or render the subsisting court order ineffective, Ezeaka maintained that the order was directed at the former town union executive rather than the state government.
He did not respond to subsequent questions concerning the alleged violation of the court order.
The controversy consequently presents two competing positions: aggrieved community stakeholders maintain that the court order restrained any election or selection of a traditional ruler pending determination of the suit, while state officials argue that the subsequent exercise conducted by a newly constituted caretaker committee was distinct from the process originally scheduled for August 8.
There has so far been no judicial determination that the August 30 exercise, the subsequent recognition of Nweke or the conduct of any individual amounted to contempt of court.
With Soludo’s presentation of a certificate of recognition to Nweke, however, the dispute has moved beyond the internal selection process to the formal recognition of a traditional ruler whose emergence remains contested and is connected to a pending court action.
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