Fifty-five years after the Nigerian soldiers massacred innocent indigenes of Asaba, during the civil war in October 1967 in Asaba, Delta State, hope rises for them as the Asagba of Asaba, Obi (Prof) Chike Edozien and the council of Chiefs have been promised justice and fairness in 2023.
In August 1967, three months into the Biafran War, Biafran troops invaded the Mid-Western Region, to the west of the River Niger.
They spread west, taking Benin City and reaching as far as Ore, where they were pushed back by the Nigerian Second Division, under the command of Col. Murtala Muhammed.
The Federal troops gained the upper hand, and forced the Biafrans back to the Niger, where they crossed the bridge back into the Biafran city of Onitsha, which lies directly across from Asaba.
The Biafrans blew up the eastern spans of the Onitsha bridge, so that the Federal troops were unable to pursue them.
The Federal troops entered Asaba around October 5, and began ransacking houses and killing civilians, claiming they were Biafran sympathisers.
Reports suggest that several hundred innocent males may have been killed individually and in groups at various locations in the town.
Leaders summoned the townspeople to assemble on the morning of October 7, hoping to end the violence through a show of support for “One Nigeria.”
Hundreds of men, women, and children, many wearing the ceremonial akwa ocha (white) attire paraded along the main street, singing, dancing, and chanting “One Nigeria.”
At a junction, men and teenage boys were separated from women and young children, and gathered in an open square at Ogbe-Osowa village.
Federal troops revealed machine guns, and orders were given, reportedly by Second-in-Command, Maj. Ibrahim Taiwo, to open fire. Most of the killing ended by 7 October.
The bodies of some victims were retrieved by family members and buried at home. But most were buried in mass graves, without appropriate ceremony. Many extended families lost dozens of men and boys.
Federal troops occupied Asaba for many months, during which time most of the town was destroyed, many women and girls were raped or forcibly “married,” and large numbers of citizens fled, often not returning until the war ended in 1970.
Although, no exact death toll for the massacre has ever been calculated. In 1981, the Asaba Development Council assembled a list of 373 dead, but stated that it was incomplete.
Anthropologist S. Elizabeth Bird and historian Fraser Ottanelli estimated that between 500 and 800 people were killed.
David Scanlon of Quaker Relief Services reported that 759 men and boys were killed, while journalist Colin Legum wrote that 700 died. Eyewitness accounts estimated between 500 and over 1,000 deaths.
But addressing the injustice, presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), in company of the governorship candidate, Olorogun Barr. Kenneth Gbagi, with other party chieftains and loyalists during a visit, assured the palace that justice would be done no matter how long it may be.
Adebayo said: “What we are bringing is truth and justice. There is nothing Nigeria, lacks order than those two things.
“For many years, politicians promised us what we have already and deny us what we don’t have and that is why we don’t have peace and peace is essential for every other thing that we want to do.
“And when things were tough in this country, this community played a major role. They paid the big prize for which we still need to do justice in the country.
“Because as my grandmother told me on my mother’s side that she was looking for her son who was in the army and she came all the way from Ondo and she couldn’t cross and things were tough and she though that getting to Asaba, she will meet hostile ground being someone whose son was on the federal side.
“But she came to Asaba, she was able to stay here, her life was spared and she was treated well. So, I wish that the whole if Nigeria, will toe the line if Asaba people and that when they are punished or endangered for been fair to all that they will still have the heart to wait for these number if years for justice to be done.
“But what I can promise the people of Asaba, is that justice will be done however long it takes”, assured.
