Delta State Deputy Governor, Barr. Kingsley Otuaro, has said that autonomous kingdom seekers in the state should first follow laid-down procedures for a approval. This position of the state was made public at the weekend by the Deputy Governor while issuing a warning that the state government would invoke the full weight of the law on persons claiming kingship/titles without the explicit backing of the law.
The Deputy Governor, who spoke to newsmen in Warri at the weekend, said “This warning has become necessary amidst rising cases of persons parading themselves as Kings of autonomous kingdoms from existing kingdoms without state recognition or force of law.
This is causing disharmony which could lead to breakdown of law and order. Some persons are going long it with the prefix “His Royal Majesty or others with the tag, Traditional ruler titles before their names. The Delta State Government remains focused in achieving its development goals and stronger Delta Agenda predicated on peace. We cannot watch by as rising number of persons take laws into their hands and endanger the existing peace”.
The Deputy Governor noted that, such fake monarchs should be reminded that Section 20 subsection 6and 7 of the Traditional Rulers Council and Chiefs law, cap T2, 2006 as amended, remained in force. He said subsection 6(a) of that section states that “Any person who purports to create a traditional ruler title or any title purporting same to be a traditional ruler title should be liable on conviction to imprisonment of two years or a fine of #20,000.
He went on to quote subsection 7, saying “Any person who not being a Traditional Ruler appointed in accordance with this part addresses himself or allow himself to be addressed as “His Highness” including any grammatical form of that address or traditional form of address of the Traditional Ruler within a community shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to six months imprisonment or a fine of #10,000. Barr. Otuaro emphasized: “The Delta State Government would not unduly hold down people desirous of seeking autonomous kingdoms that follow laid down procedures to get approval but until that happens government will no longer tolerate illegalities and will invoke full weight law, haven severally warned in the past”.
