Chairman of the embattled Caretaker Committee (CTC) of the Jumbo Major House of Grand Bonny Kingdom, Jasper Jumbo says the biggest chieftaincy house in Bonny needs peace and unity now more than ever.

He further said that having suffered economic challenges in the past years, the House and its members were set to bounce back to economic boom.

Jumbo said this during an Empowerment Summit the CTC organized in Port Harcourt on Thursday, February 27, 2020.  

The CTC has been enmeshed in legal tussles with its parent body, the Council of Elders of the Jumbo Major House over the years.

While the Elders’ Council insists the Caretaker Committee’s tenure has expired, the CTC asserts that it was not allowed to serve out its tenure and more so, it was not subject to the Elders’ Council, having been allegedly elected by the masses of the House.

The event, which was attended by several members of the Jumbo Major House saw the distribution of buses, tricycles, feet massagers, sewing machines, hair driers, stipends, and lots more to the beneficiaries ranging from youths, women, men, and some elders of the house.

Jasper Jumbo expressed appreciation to God for His boundless mercies showered on the Jumbo Major House, expressing his profound happiness that a dream he had nurtured for years had come to pass, eventually.

He advised the beneficiaries to live in peace with one another and shun violence, pointing out that the reason for the empowerment was because he had watched for long the suffering of the people of Jumbo House, noting that he had come to serve and to emancipate the Jumbo house from slavery and divide and rule system which has held them bound for too long.

The Jumbo House CTC Chairman encouraged the participants not to sell their starter packs but rather use it to empower themselves, enjoining those who got the Keke NAPEP tricycles to use it to turn around their economy fortunes, urging them to choose the right candidates during the forthcoming Jumbo Major House elections, warning that “a lot of people don’t have the interest of the Jumbo House at heart”.

In his goodwill message, the lawmaker representing Bonny Constituency in the Rivers State House of Assembly, Abinye Blessing Pepple, represented by Asai Jumbo, expressed joy over the epoch making event, thanking Jasper Jumbo for his good heartedness, encouraged the people of Jumbo House to make good use of the opportunity afforded them.

Also speaking, a youth leader, Boma Jumbo thanked Jasper Jumbo for his good deeds, noting that this kind of empowerment has never been done and it is the end of an era of confusion and the beginning of a new era of peace and progress.

Women leader in the Caretaker Committee, Mienye Dan-Jumbo also thanked Jasper Jumbo for his good works which was the first of its kind, assuring him of the full support of the women come the next election, urging the women not to be tempted to sell their starter packs but to use it to empower themselves and support their homes.

Another youth leader, Emmanuel Jumbo also expressed appreciation Jasper Jumbo for his large heart and kind gesture, promising that the youths of Jumbo House would now be self-employed as a result of this empowerment and in no distant time also be employers of labour.