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| Chief Abel Attoni |
A lawyer, development expert, revered community leader, and currently, the Chief and Head of Attoni Chieftaincy House of Bonny Kingdom, Chief Abel Attoni serves as the Secretary of the Perekule Palace where he manages the secretariat of the ancient kingdom.
Many, who have interacted with him directly in diverse ways and different fora, share a consensus on his gentility, versatility, pungency, astuteness and analytical wisdom. He spoke with Kristina Reports Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, Godswill Jumbo on the issues surrounding the recent face-off by some youths of Bonny Kingdom at the premises of Evomec General Services Limited (EGSL). It is a fine read:
Kristina Reports: For the records, Sir, can we have your reaction to the Evomec incident? We understand you had sent a letter to the company recommending some names on behalf of the King and then the King was not in the country. And then when he came he asked you to do up another list which you also recommended some names which were also included in that other list and sent to the same company. The youths who were protesting were saying that Evomec refused to honour the second list. We need to hear from you on the accuracy of these as the Palace Secretary.
Abel Attoni: The basic thing is that the first one is right. Yes, we wrote that the King was out of the country. That was September 9th. And then there was another list that emanated when he came back. That was October 9th. He had asked about it but I think there was a communication gap. And then we resolved also that we have to harmonize the two lists. As of yesterday (Friday, December 14), when the young men went to protest, I understand they went under the auspices of Concerned Bonny Youths; at that point the list had already been harmonized with the company. And they agreed that they were going to take all the parties that were involved. That much I can say. Any other confirmation, I am not in a position to say anything because it was based on misinformation that that confrontation happened.
KR: One of the leaders of the Concerned Bonny Youths, Emmanuel Hart said letters were written to the security agencies, to the palace, to the Bonny Youths Federation, among others about that protest. Can you confirm seeing this letter?
AA: I didn’t see any letter.
KR: No letter like that came to the palace?
AA: I didn’t see. Maybe they wrote to the Bonny Chiefs Council not to the palace of the Amanyanabo because I didn’t see any letter like that.
KR: Did they make any effort to reach you on this matter because if they were protesting on an issue you were handling, they naturally should have cleared with you on the facts of the matter.
AA: No, they did not. And we don’t want violence at this point in time. Actually, I consider that incident as very unfortunate. For anybody to say that the King sent him…the King never sends anybody to the site to go and disrupt any company’s activities. It is not true. That is the only inclination I had yesterday because I was called and informed that some people were somewhere protesting and said that the King sent them. And I said it is not true. It has never happened before so how can it happen now. That is the only time I heard from the person.
KR: As a Chief of Bonny Kingdom, do you think yesterday’s incident has further heightened the perception of Bonny/Finima dichotomy?
AA: I don’t have any comment for you on that because the incident is not between Bonny and Finima. Bonny is one entity. Finima is part of Bonny. So, if some group of youths go and protest I don’t think that we can couch it as Bonny/Finima dichotomy. That would be an abnormality.
KR: So, given this, what is your advice for the youths?
AA: I think they should try and verify information very well before taking any action. They shouldn’t take any political slant to any issue.
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