The traditional ruler of Ogidi in Idemili North Local Government of Anambra State, Igwe Alexander Onyido, has frowned at the high rate of cultism and laziness among the youths.
The traditional ruler spoke yesterday in Ogidi, during the celebration of second Ito-Aro by the community.
Ito -aro in Ogidi is the celebration by those who have attained the age of 80 years and above. The first edition started three years ago in 2019.
Igwe Onyido decried the senseless killings through cultism, saying that the scale and frequency of unwarranted killings was unprecedented in the community.
He urged the cultists to drop the practice and have a change of heart as well as take a step to atone for their sins.
“Those who want to go come out should extricate themselves from this and run away from shadow of death which is already over them and avoid the consequences.” Igwe admonished.
He also frowned at youths who out of shear laziness complain of joblessness, stressing that most of the youth actually don’t want to engage themselves in meaningful activities.
The traditional ruler challenged the youth to resist the mentality of sitting at home and folding their hands because it leads to crime.
He said such crimes as robbery, cultism, yahoo yahoo and internet fraud among youths are as a result of laziness .
Igwe Onyido said these crimes lead the perpetrators to avoidable violent crime and unfortunate end.
He was however optimistic that his advice to the youth would provide a clean platform for a new beginning.
Earlier in his speech, the chairman of the ocassion, Prof.Frank Okafor, urged the members of Ogidi community to join hands with Igwe Onyido to work for the progress of the community and Anambra State in general.
He pointed that the support must include the finance to help the traditional ruler in sustaining the trianial Ito-Aro celebration.
The chairman of the 2022 Organising Committee, Chief Chris Onwudiwe, in an interview with newsmen said the innovation in this year’s event was the community service award given to four people for their contribution to the development of Ogidi community.
The recipients include Mrs Felicia Okafor, Chief Dominic Okaro, Chief Mike Okeke and Dr. Sam Anyakora.
He said that 150 persons were involved in this year’s Ito-Aro as against 500 who qualified in the first edition in 2019.
Chief Onwudiwe said the Ito-Aro helped to organise and strghten the age grade system in Ogidi community, expressing optimism that there would be significant improvement in the next event in three years.
The high point of the ocassion was the decoration of the awardees by the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe and match past by the celebrating age grade and other age grades in the community.
