The protracted struggle for control of the Obong of Calabar throne has reached a head as stern-faced police officers have blocked access to the chambers of the Cross River State Traditional Rulers’ Council of Chiefs, which is located next to the governor’s office.
The threatening officials are allegedly preventing Etubom Anthony Ani, a former minister of finance and the claimant to the Efik throne, from accessing the door.
Ani served as a minister in the administration of the late General Sani Abacha.
The site was also closed off to some 18 paramount chiefs from the 18 LGAs who had come to support Etubom Ani as the new Obong of Calabar.
The chairman of the state Traditional Rulers Council, Etenyin Etim Okon Edet, was to greet Etubom Ani, who had been acclaimed the Obong of Calabar-elect by his own camp, together with the other 17 paramount rulers in the state, on Friday morning at the council rooms.
Armed police officers, however, descended upon the main gate much earlier and blocked it off, preventing even government employees from entering their various offices in the neighboring Ministry of Finance complex.
They declined to provide justifications for barring the former minister.
The state government would have taken a position and formally endorsed Etubom Ani, according to sources close to the state governor, if the event was permitted to take place.
According to one source, Etubom Ani’s planned news conference as well as his trips to meet with all of the paramount rulers in their domains have also been postponed.
Adiabo Ikoneto and Esin Ufot Ikot Offiong, two communities in Ani’s native Odukpani LGA, have been lavishly treated in Ani’s opulent house close to Governor Bassey Otu’s new office since last week.
Ani has adamantly maintained that he is the legally recognized Obong of Calabar, claiming that he ‘won’ proceedings to that effect at the High Court, Appeal, and Supreme Court about the 15-year dispute and followed the top court’s instructions.