• It’s An Insult To Our Culture, Tradition — Okpareke
Imo State’s biggest traditional festival, the Ikeji festival of Arondizuogu, may not hold this year over disagreement between the organisers, the Arondiuzogu Patriotic Union (APU) and a marketing company, Elveden Resource Nigeria (ERN). 
  
ERN has threatened to drag APU to court and stop the festival over alleged breach of contract by the APU. The company said it had on December 29, 2019, entered into a consultancy service agreement with APU for the marketing, branding and repackaging of the Ikeji festival for a period of four year, from 2019 to 2023.
  
According to the Creative Director of ERN, Mr. Ikenna Anene, having entered into the agreement, the company had spent so much in marketing, promotion and publicity of the festival, first in 2020. However, the Federal government’s suspension of inter-state travels and all gatherings as a result of the COVID-19, forced the festival to postpone in 2020.

He said in 2021, APU had new executives in place and without having any form of discussion with the ERN, the new exco decided to jettison the contract APU entered with them.
  
Anene said: “Why we are resorting to the law court is that they have not agreed to come to the table and discuss with us. After the agreement was signed with APU, we have spent so much money on the Ikeji project. It is not a must that we continue to handle the festival, they can reimburse us the money we have spent on the project and let us go our way.”
  
When asked if the new APU leadership had acknowledged the contract agreement, Anene said: “Of course there was a document that was signed. They have acknowledged that, but what they are saying was that they were not comfortable with the agreement signed by the former exco of APU. They acknowledged the agreement but were not ready to enter into negotiation with us. They should pay us off for what we have expended and we will go away.”
  
He continued: “We started engaging them even in 2021, before the 2021 Ikeji festival. We didn’t want to come out to say anything. We wanted to show them that we were ready to negotiate, but their going ahead to hold the 2021 Ikeji festival was a clear violation of the agreement we entered with them.  So, that is why we decided to take this action of stopping the 2022 edition.  So, if they don’t come to the table to negotiate, we will go to court for the agreement to stand.  This might also include asking that the festival be suspended until these matters are resolved.”
  
Reacting to the allegation and threat by ERN, the Secretary of APU, Mazi Chinedu Okpareke said: “Yes indeed, there is an issue. We are trying to get information from the former administration with some anomalies. There are some discrepancies we inherited. We have directed it to the former executives asking them to come and give us answers to the questions, but that is not forthcoming. However, because Arondizuogu is a community, the Ikeji festival is a heritage, a cultural event. It is a gazetted festival by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture. It started before all of us alive in Nigeria, all of us.

“APU was founded in 1932. APU is even older than independent Nigeria. Ikeji started before the slave trade. So, you can just understand what we are talking about. So it is not something that is a normal commercial transaction. This is a cultural event. Do your research, find out about the Ikeji festival. So, when I hear that a company or somebody wants to go to court to stop the Ikeji festival, I find that very insulting to our culture and tradition. I find that very laughable.”