Two communities in Ohafia Native Authorities Space of Abia State, Eziukwu Ebem and Ekeluogo Ebem, have appealed towards the judgment of the Abia State Excessive Court docket which upheld their exclusion from the checklist of duly recognised autonomous communities within the state.
The 2 autonomous communities had been in 2002 created out of then Ebem Oha autonomous neighborhood by the state authorities and every of their conventional rulers had been introduced staffs of workplace.
Nevertheless, in 2010, one Ezie S.A Okorie went to court docket with go well with No: HOH/21/2010 to problem the legality of the creation of Eziukwu Ebem and Ekeluogo Ebem as autonomous communities and known as for his or her abrogation.
The court docket dismissed the go well with and pronounced the creation of the 2 autonomous communities as lawful.
One other go well with, numbered HOH/21/2010, was filed by the opponents of the 2 autonomous communities, who demanded their abrogation.
In 2015, the Abia State Home of Meeting effected an modification to legislation No. 8 which borders on conventional rulers and autonomous communities of the state.
When the legislation was made public in 2016, it was found that Eziukwu Ebem and Ekeluogo Ebem autonomous communities had been lacking from the checklist of acknowledged autonomous communities in Abia State.
After searching for administrative measures to appropriate the omission of the 2 autonomous communities from the Schedule to Regulation No. 8 of 2015, which didn’t yield any dividend, the leaders of the 2 communities sought judicial intervention.
Nevertheless, on February 8, 2024, the Abia State Excessive Court docket, Umuahia Judicial Division delivered a judgement in two fits numbered HOH/133/2016 and HOH/134/2016, instituted by the 2 communities, and affirmed their exclusion by the Home of Meeting.
Not glad with the ruling of the court docket, the communities have approached the Owerri Division of the Court docket of Enchantment, saying that their autonomous communities shouldn’t be abrogated.
They’ve additionally filed an software for keep of execution pending the dedication of the appeals.
The appeals are predicated on the grounds that the choice of the Home of Meeting was taken with out honest listening to from the affected communities and that the judgment, if allowed to face, will end result within the miscarriage of justice.
