Chukwudi Ihenetu
The bid by businessman Chukwudi Jude Ihenetu to hold himself as an Igbo King in Ghana has been dealt a final blow as the South East Council of Traditional Rulers (SECTR) in Nigeria writes to the Nigerian High Commissioner to Ghana on the subject.
The correspondence, dated July 16, 2025 and signed by HRM, Eze (Dr.) E.C. Okeke, Eze Imo, Chairman of the Imo State Council of Traditional Institutions and Community Policing & Chairman of South East Council of Traditional Rulers states that “the throne and kingship of Ndigbo (Igboman) is situated in the Kingdom or Community of the fatherland and not exportable to foreign lands.”
SECTR recalls cautioning “our overzealous subjects in the diaspora, especially the one in Ghana who parades himself as king without a kingdom or community, on the need to stop the use of the title ‘Ezeigbo’.”
Continuing, he said that the title ‘Ezeigbo’ was proscribed since February 24, 2008, and the title ‘Onyendu Igbo/Ndindu Igbo’ approved for Igbo leaders in the diaspora.
“SECTR affirms that the case of our subject in Ghana is an exceptional one since he has decided to fight the gods and ancestors of Ndigbo by not heeding to superior opinions, advice, caution and tradition of Ndigbo which should be observed anywhere in the world, hence his present predicament and consequences,” he added.
SECTR appealed to the government and people of Ghana not to use the sin of an individual to punish and condemn a group of innocent people since there are bound to be bad eggs everywhere and Judas in every Twelve Apostles.
SECTR also condemned in its entirety the idea of “our subject in diaspora arrogating to himself the status of a King in a foreign land without any cultural or traditional antecedents while on transit in a foreign land on business.”
SECTR expressed gratitude to the government and people of Ghana for giving Ndigbo the opportunity to live in peace and to do their legitimate business in the country.
“Indigbos are peace loving people irrespective of unfounded misconceptions of uninformed people,” SECTR stated.
The Council adds that “there cannot be a king or Eze without a throne, community or kingdom.”
SECTR also advocates for peaceful coexistence of Ndigbos and their hosts.
The emergence of a self-acclaimed king in Ghana who had reportedly acquired fifty acres of land in the Greater Accra Region attracted opprobrium from a cross section of Ghanaians.
The Igbo community in Ghana also disowned the men at the centre of the storm.