The Nwoko royal family is the founding family of the Idumuje Ugboko kingdom and has since then led the town through its enshrined patriarch system of monarchy. This was so established as the founding fathers of the town were direct immigrants of Uzebu quarters in Benin. As a result the dynasty and its customs are largely modelled after the culture and traditions of the royal Benin monarchy.
The town has fairly allowed for sons and daughters born outside of proper marital wedlock to be welcomed back into the town. This tradition is driven by the fact that such a child may not have full rights and entitlements in the towns of their biological paternity.
This is rightfully balanced by the historical occurrences that show that the town reserves a right to have indigenes of idumuje ugboko (who are considered personal non-grata) excommunicated from the town. Usually in the best interest of the peoples tranquillity, traditional decency and moral sanity.
However it is not good a taste to ever have a member of the royal family face the possibility of being removed from all valid citizenry of the town. As such indigenes of the town have long waited for the Nwoko Family to sort out the defecations of unscrupulous elements like Ned Nwoko
Ned Nwoko a former member of the house of representatives bears the family name not because he has the Nwoko royal blood flowing in him, but because his mother was a natural born Nwoko. Ned However is not fathered from within Idumuje Ugboko at all. He is the product of an illicit affair that culminated in unexpected pregnancy.
This has constantly created problems for the politician who has constantly sort to exert unprecedented influence over the town. Such influence as even the natural born male descendants of the Nwoko family would not attempt to exert.
He initially requested for 33 hectares of fertile community land to be given to him for a “job creating” Agro-Ranch venture at no cost to him. On the basis of being deemed to be a royal son and seeing the possibility of this employing indigenes of the town, the land was given to him without additional town approvals that would have been necessary for non-royal sons of the land.
Unfortunately he double crossed the town by building his personal home and not much else on this vast expanse of land. Certainly no job creating agro-ranch business of any kind.
After the last electoral process in which he may have politically enriched himself, he returned to the town by way of royal privilege to try and annex another 93 hectares of land for the purpose of building a personal golf course.
This put him on a direct collision course with legitimate sons of the royal family including the then heir apparent Prince Nomso Nwoko. As can be expected the heir apparent’ s position on the matter could not be overlooked by the family nor by the town. This resulted in Ned’s land acquisition ambitions being effectively afflicted and ultimately brought to stalled state.
In response to this, Ned embarked on numerous attempts to divide the town and murk the name and image of the heir apparent. He enlisted his thugs to submit legal suits against the heir apparent in order to weaken the resolve of the heir apparent against his land grab ambition. As this was going on, he employed bulldozers to begin clearing farm lands that form part of the 93 hectares he was looking for.
The heir apparent stood against this on all fronts realising that he was creating an unnecessary problem for him to inherit once he climbs the throne. As a result both a traditional and a legal injunction was given against his quest to bulldoze his way through the land of the indigenes.
In response to this, Ned began to foment trouble using thugs and forcing the doors of prominent royal family elders to be broken down in order to force them to attend unconstitutional approval meetings that he and his cronies had secretly put together.
As Ned realised that he could not subvert the position and authority of the heir apparent, he exhibited his worst show of frustration by trying to alter the patriarchal system of kingship in the family. His cronies suggested an idea that the heir apparent could not be king as his mother was not from Idumuje Ugboko.
Tempers flared at this move as no one could understand how a person whose father was not at all from Idumuje Ugboko (talk less of being from the Nwoko family) could stand on grounds of the nativity of the heir apparent’ s mother to insult the family at large.
In response to this insult, the only member of the family who was used for this shameful act was excommunicated from the family and died shortly afterwards of natural causes.
This is most provoking as it is well known that the mother of the heir apparent was hand-picked by Obi Justin Nkeze Nwoko himself to be the wife of Obi Albert Nwoko (His First Son) and mother of the king who should reign after Obi Albert.
It is very crucial to understand that Obi Nkeze Nwoko is so completely immortalised as the greatest of all the kings that the family dynasty has raised. For Ned to go as far as challenging the dictates of Obi Nkeze Nwoko as to who should raise the next king for Obi Albert Nwoko is the straw that has finally broken the camel’s back.
Idumuje Ugboko is in Aniocha Local government Area of Delta state and like other villages in Delta North are direct decendants from ancient Benin kingdom. Their tradition in that kingship is inherited by the first son of the ruling kingand this is the old long tradition that Ned wants to subvert for his selfish ambition.
This has now led to the younger members of the family to call for a complete expulsion of Ned Nwoko from the family there by paving way for the town to attend to him as a non-grata. This is very relevant as culture and medical science both stand on the same page : agreeing that the blood that flows through the veins of us all came from our biological fathers and not our mothers. He has no Nwoko blood in him and as such should no longer pretend to be one.
Obi Albert Nwoko passed on after a prolonged ailment in the month of February 2017 and the tradition and culture of the people for the heir apparent to seat on the throne, morn the king, burry him and then have his kingship coronated by way of public celebration and formalities has properly commenced.
This is a gruesome reality for Ned. And so to seal his own fate within the family, Ned Nwoko and his cronies have suddenly began to publish materials in the media claiming that there is a controversy amongst king makers on who should seat on the throne.
Unfortunately for him this sounds like the case of “He that the gods want to destroy they first make him mad”.
Idumuje Ugboko does not have the system of king making nor does it have a place for the so called “king makers” (just like in the Benin Kingdom). In Idumuje Ugboko kings are born not made. While a king is alive the next king is already introduced to the palace shrines and no committee of king makers ever exists or meets to discuss the question of who should be king.
With all this abominations by Ned Nwoko and his cronies the family has decided to commence every activity necessary to permanently exclude Ned from being deemed to be a male descendant of the Nwoko Royal family (which biologically he is not.)
It is expected that while Ned and his cronies hope to find a way to defecate the throne and plant a child (who has no bearing to what this is all about), the family will conclude his excommunication process and have the town at large deal with Ned Nwoko as they would desire to do.
Chukwuka Nwoko is from the royal family of Idumuje Ugboko and a public affairs analyst.
