Speaker, Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Chief Moses Ije Odunwa.
By Victor Nwegede, Abakaliki.
Ebonyi State House of Assembly, EBHA has moved a motion to ban masquerading at pulblic places in Ohaukwu council area of the state.
The Speaker of the House, Moses Odunwa disclosed this during the first year valedictory of the 7th State Assembly members, Thursday at the House Hallow Chamber, Nkaleke.
He said the motion to ban masquerading in public places, was to bring an immediate and permanent end to the alleged barbarism in the council.
He explained: "A motion to ban masquerading at public places in Ohaukwu local government area of the state aimed at bringing an immediate and permanent end to barbarism in Okwor Ngbo Market."
Recall that a masquerade popularly known as Ugwoke Omebe beat ministers of God recently at the said Okwor Ngbo Market.
This led to the arrest of six masquerades at Okwor Ngbo market in Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State for allegedly beating people and going against the ban on parading masquerades on market days.
It was gathered that leaders of the Ngbo community had earlier warned the youths to stop using masquerades to harass and disturb market women and collect money from them.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Speaker of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Hon. Onah Chinedu Ogba, who spearheaded the ban, has said that he is not against masquerade display.
The Deputy Speaker in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Joshua Ebenyi, said any masquerade caught in Okwor Market and major roads will face the wrath of the law.
“Rt Hon Onah Chinedu Ogba, the Deputy Speaker of Ebonyi State and an illustrious son of Abarigwe Umuogudu Oshia Ngbo in Ohaukwu Local Government Area has today expressed his ill feelings towards the constant parading of masquerades in Okwor Market and the major roads of Ngboejeogu and had called it a mayhem and a bridge to the successful trading in the general market,” the statement read.
“We are not in any way preaching against the cultural displays such as masquerading but it should be on our various village squares and playground. Okwor market is a place for exchange of goods and services and host people from different place and cultural backgrounds and masquerading distracts the business activities and subjects people to unnecessary tense and running around which has led many to sustaining serious injuries and therefore should be stopped entirely,”
"Consequently, it has been aired and further announced that any masquerade caught around the aforementioned places will face the wrath of the law as hoodlums use the opportunity to display their cultic fracas, witch-hunt people and further give people injuries which is the opposite of the original intents of our forefathers.
“More so, all the native doctors in Okwor market are also advised to take all their activities and enchantments out from okwor market but to their different destinations as anyone caught in such an act will have more regrets than gains.”
The Speaker earlier noted that the State's seventh Assembly has made sixteen (16) laws and moved six (6) motions, which in his words, has a direct bearing on the advancement and economic development of the state.
The laws included Ebonyi State Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency Law, 2023, Ebonyi State Boundary and Allied Matters Commission Law, 2023, and Ebonyi State Rural Access Roads Authority Law, 2023.
Others were Ebonyi State Roads Fund Law, 2023, Ebonyi State Drugs and Medical Commodities Management Agency Law, 2023, Ebonyi State Statistics Law, 2023, Ebonyi State Revised Appropriation Law, 2023, Ebonyi State Appropriation Law, 2023, and Ebonyi State Physical Planning Permit Regulation Law, 2024.
Also, Ebonyi State Urban and Regional Planning and Development Law, 2024,
Ebonyi State Building Control Regulation Law, 2024, Ebonyi State Chief Registrars ( Harmonization with the Permanent Secretaries) Law, 2024, Ebonyi State Citizens Mediation Centre Law, 2024.
14. Ebonyi State Honours (Amendment) Law, 2024, Ebonyi State Correctional Service and Regulation Law, 2024 and Ebonyi State International Airport Law, 2024 were passed by the House within a year in office.
Other motions moved by the House included a motion for standing ovation in honour of the Chief Servant of the State, Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru for his outstanding leadership qualities and performance, and a motion for the provision of monthly stipends for Town Union Presidents of the State by Local Government Council Chairmen.
The House also moved a motion for the upgrade of the State's ten Model Junior Secondary Schools to fully operational Secondary Schools and a motion for the Rehabilitation of the convert along Abakaliki-Enugu Express Way between Master Energy and Jonas Filling Stations Abakaliki to forestall inevitable road Accidents.
He explained that the convert was a death trap but has been properly fixed and is currently in use.
The House Resolution concerning the Ebonyi State Independent Electoral Commission's Local Government Elections 2024 Budget Proposal was also mentioned as the achievements of the 7th State Assembly in the first year in office by the Speaker.