The women of Ebenebe Community in Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State have protested the dismissal of Mrs. Favour Nworah, their female leader, by the state governor, Chukwuma Soludo, for allegedly endorsing the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in the general elections of 2023.
Several months after the 2023 general elections, in April 2023, Governor Soludo fired Nworah from her post as the community’s Women President General of Ebenebe Town Union Women Wing (ETU WW), according to information obtained by newsmen.
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Some of the demonstrators claimed that the women’s leader was fired because she was photographed wearing Labour Party-branded attire while attending political events and photographing alongside Obi, Mr. Ferdinand Onwuje, the LP’s candidate for the Awka North House of Assembly, and other Labour Party members.
According to reports, the ouster of Nworah caused the women’s union to split into two factions, one of which is now headed by Mrs. Josephine Okafor, the interim women’s leader appointed by the government, and the other by the embattled Nworah, whose supporters have been staging nonviolent demonstrations in Ebenebe and Awka to protest her ouster and call for her reinstatement.
Speaking on the matter, Nworah admitted to have supported Onwuje during the 2023 State House of Assembly elections “Because he is my husband and always by my side. APGA (All Progressive Grand Alliance) candidate has not called me even once, talk more of coming to me as his woman PG upon I am from the same ward with him. The day he visited Awka North women wing, he met Amansea Woman PG instead of me.”
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Nworah however noted that she remains an APGA member and that she worked for APGA and Soludo during the 2021 governorship elections in the state. She added that “I couldn’t sleep because I know what I did for APGA and Soludo. I used my money, my products, my strength and time for my party APGA to make sure Soludo won. I visited all the wards in Awka north to make sure women’s votes count.”
One of the protest organizers at a recent demonstration in Ebenebe, Mrs. Florence Nnatu, charged that the men’s wing of the union’s leadership and other Ebenebe Community stakeholders were complicit in the crisis that was shaking the union.
But Hon. Chukwudi Okonkwo, President General of Ebenebe Town Union (ETU), asserted that despite being informed of Okafor’s appointment to serve as the community’s Interim Women Leader/Chairperson, his office was not to blame for Nworah’s dismissal.
Okonkwo said, “Anambra State government has appointed an Interim Executive led by Mrs Josephine Okafor to lead Ebenebe Town Union Women Wing. I don’t have the power to do it or question the government for taking such steps.
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“I learnt that Mrs Okafor was appointed by the ministry after considering various petitions filed against Mrs Nworah by her fellow women. I have some of the petitions copied to me. The government has power to also announce election for the women whenever it deems it necessary.”
The Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, Obinabo, declined to respond when reached by phone for remark and cut off the call.
Similar to this, Interim Chairperson/Woman Leader of the Town Union Women Wing Okafor, who was appointed by the state government, ignored calls to her phone number.
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