There Was No Need For The Fight At Evomec – Bonny Palace Secretary
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| Chief Abel Attoni |
A lawyer, development expert, revered community leader, and currently,
the Chief and Head of Attoni Chieftaincy House of Bonny Kingdom, Chief Abel
Attoni serves as the Secretary of the Perekule Palace where he manages the
secretariat of the ancient kingdom.
Many, who have interacted with him directly in diverse ways and different
fora, share a consensus on his gentility, versatility, pungency, astuteness and
analytical wisdom. He spoke with Kristina Reports Publisher/Editor-in-Chief,
Godswill Jumbo on the issues surrounding the recent face-off by some youths of
Bonny Kingdom at the premises of Evomec General Services Limited (EGSL). It is
a fine read:
Kristina Reports: For the records,
Sir, can we have your reaction to the Evomec incident? We understand you had
sent a letter to the company recommending some names on behalf of the King and
then the King was not in the country. And then when he came he asked you to do
up another list which you also recommended some names which were also included in
that other list and sent to the same company. The youths who were protesting
were saying that Evomec refused to honour the second list. We need to hear from
you on the accuracy of these as the Palace Secretary.
Abel Attoni: The basic thing
is that the first one is right. Yes, we wrote that the King was out of the
country. That was September 9th. And then there was another list
that emanated when he came back. That was October 9th. He had asked
about it but I think there was a communication gap. And then we resolved also
that we have to harmonize the two lists. As of yesterday (Friday, December 14), when the young men went to protest, I understand they went under the auspices of Concerned Bonny Youths; at that point the list had already been harmonized with the
company. And they agreed that they were going to take all the parties that were
involved. That much I can say. Any other confirmation, I am not in a position
to say anything because it was based on misinformation that that confrontation
happened.
KR: One of the leaders of the
Concerned Bonny Youths, Emmanuel Hart said letters were written to the security
agencies, to the palace, to the Bonny Youths Federation, among others about
that protest. Can you confirm seeing this letter?
AA: I didn’t
see any letter.
KR: No letter like that came to the
palace?
AA: I didn’t
see. Maybe they wrote to the Bonny Chiefs Council not to the palace of the
Amanyanabo because I didn’t see any letter like that.
KR: Did they make any effort to
reach you on this matter because if they were protesting on an issue you were
handling, they naturally should have cleared with you on the facts of the
matter.
AA: No, they
did not. And we don’t want violence at this point in time. Actually, I consider
that incident as very unfortunate. For anybody to say that the King sent
him…the King never sends anybody to the site to go and disrupt any company’s
activities. It is not true. That is the only inclination I had yesterday
because I was called and informed that some people were somewhere protesting and said that
the King sent them. And I said it is not true. It has never happened before so
how can it happen now. That is the only time I heard from the person.
KR: As a Chief of Bonny Kingdom, do
you think yesterday’s incident has further heightened the perception of
Bonny/Finima dichotomy?
AA: I don’t
have any comment for you on that because the incident is not between Bonny and
Finima. Bonny is one entity. Finima is part of Bonny. So, if some group of
youths go and protest I don’t think that we can couch it as Bonny/Finima
dichotomy. That would be an abnormality.
KR: So, given this, what is your
advice for the youths?
AA: I think
they should try and verify information very well before taking any action. They
shouldn’t take any political slant to any issue.
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