Igbo Maritime Elders Forum Conduct Election, Removes Austen Kelly

…Sets to Conduct ASIMPIN Election After 12-years Of Damian Obianigwe

By DAPO OLAWUNI

The Elders in Council of the Association of Igbo Maritime Practitioners in Nigeria (ASIMPIN) has elected new set of executives to carryout a rebirth of the group, even as the previous executives led by Chief Austen Kelly has been alleged to be a rubber-stamp and speechless executive.

The ASIMPIN Elders in Council at an election which held on Thursday in Apapa during its Adhoc Joint Meeting, also vowed to compel the Director General of Association of Igbo Maritime Practitioners in Nigeria (ASIMPIN) HRM Eze Damian Obianigwe to conduct elections into the association.

Obianigwe was elected into office on August 16th 2012 for a two years tenure. He has however remained in office ever since.

The new Executives of the ASIMPIN Elders in Council is led by Boniface Okoye as Chairman, Dr Chukwu Osita Patrick as Secretary,r Steven Ibe is Financial Secretary, Festus Ukwu is Public Relations Officer, High Chief Nwachukwu Prime Minister/ Treasurer of the forum respectively.

Briefing our correspondent at the end of the exercise, the newly elected Secretary, Osita Chukwu Patrick said the group decided to conduct it’s election and removed Chief Austen Kelly and his Secretary, Mr Ben Nwokika in order to foster progress and restore Igbo cultural heritage in the maritime sector.

He said “We had an adhoc joint meeting of the Elders today, and decided that the previous Elders Forum Chairman and the Secretary were misleading the generality of the executives and members as regards to 15-years now that elections have been conducted by the expired executives of ASIMPIN leaders.

“We decided to conduct our election today and removed Chief Austen Kelly and Mr Ben Nwokika in order to foster movement as regards to what we can do to restore Igbo cultural heritage in the maritime sector.

“The election was conducted without any rancor. All through the years Austen Kelly led us, it yielded negativity, because if it was positive, there is no way an elder would be in place and condone the mess going on in ASIMPIN where somebody is given two years tenure and he is using fifteen years, this shows irresponsibility of the leader which is demonstrated by Kelly’s administration.

“The next step after we reconvene is to compel Damian Obianigwe to conduct an election, and if he doesn’t do that, we have no option than to take a legal action against him” he said

The newly elected officials according to Osita, were implored to hit the ground running by ensuring that no member condone the rubber-stamp leadership practices of the previous speechless elders.