Asaba men and women
…Some of the untold stories .
The indigenes of Asaba today recall to mind of a long-forgotten experience during the bloody civil war and the massacre of their men and male children.The open wound has refused to go even after 50 years. If we don’t tell the story, the generations unborn will not know the genocidal act Asaba went through in the hand of Federal Troops(Nigeria Army). Asaba wasn’t actively part of Biafra geographically and it was the retreating Biafran soldiers who blew up the Niger Bridge in frustration , the Federal Troops led by Col. Banjo who could not cross to the other side of the River Niger basically rounded up men and male children in Asaba and shot them to death.Four decades after the war, Asaba is now a busy state capital, looking to the future where the stars are made. The Asaba people and indeed, the Igbo people in general do not seek retribution, but only to tell their stories allowing the truth and facts of our experiences to be adopted into Nigerian’s collective memory. The realities today show that these expectations are far from being considered let alone accepted.
All efforts to share this common historical experience are truncated by the Nigerian government. And we cannot possibly deny the fact that the disunity amongst Nigerians deepens as the days go by. The same injustices of the war reappear today, though more subtly and less physically fierce.We can’t but tell our stories over and over again, for only when we do, we can appreciate the things that made the story and have more grasp of how to deal with the realities of today.
Asaba history will never forget this day called October 5, 1967, during the bloody civil war, federal troops occupied the peaceful town of Asaba, Nigeria, on the west bank of the Niger River. They accused the people of supporting the retreating Biafran army and for two days rampaged the town killing hundreds of innocent, unharmed citizens. At the crux of this genocidal act, on Saturday, October 7, 1967, thousands of the people of Asaba, came together screaming ”One Nigeria, One Nigeria,” believing a show of support for the Nigerian government would pacify the situation. Instead, after the separation of the women and children from men and adolescent boys, the bullet-hungry soldiers gathered the male folks in the centre of the Ogbe-Osowa village and turned their machine guns on them.
More than 700 died with many seriously wounded. Most families could not retrieve the bodies and the dead were buried in mass graves. At the end of that week, more than
1000 civilians were killed, raped, molested, threatened and Asaba laid in ruins. Many fled never to return until the war ended in 1970.
Colonel Murtala Mohammed was the commanding officer of the 2nd division which was responsible for the legendary beating back of the Biafran Army from the Mid-West
Region, as well as crossing the River Niger and linking up with the 1st Division which was marching down from Nnsuka and Enugu.
Whether Murtala ordered the massacre or not, it was his Division and must therefore take full responsibility.The casualties were not soldiers or combatants. They were not caught by friendly fire or accidental discharge. They were gathered together and gunned down in what remains one of the most callous incidents of the Nigerian Civil War. Men who survived the war were those who were sick or too old to come to the square, those who were lucky during the shooting and those who escaped.
Interestingly, the Asaba story was never told as the starving children of Biafra dwarfed the gory event in Asaba.
After the soldiers left, leaving blood and death behind, the stinking unidentified bodies were buried in a mass grave by the lucky survivors.For decades, Asaba has lived with this horrific and traumatic experience in silence. Most Nigerians have never heard of the fate that befell Asaba people on October 7, 1967. Ironically, those who led this massacre rose to become national heroes, with monuments named after them and beautiful stories told about them.
It is therefore pathetic that those who murdered unarmed civilians in Asaba have never been reprimanded in life or in death, neither has the Federal Government of
Nigeria admitted that its troops murdered its citizens, who pledged unflinching loyalty, without provocation is a dent on Nigeria’s image and a shame to a country
”where peace and justice” is supposed to reign.
“We can’t but tell our stories over and over again, for only when we do, we can appreciate the things that made the stories and have more grasp of how to deal with the
realities of today”.
This is the continuation of the articulation of narrations by survivors of the Asaba massacre of October 4-8, 1967 during the Nigeria-Biafra War. We hear them share
with us their direct experiences and of course, reveal the real truth and facts.
If you missed the experience , please read the bitter experience of survivors of Asaba massacre:
SURVIVOR 3, FEMALE, PATIENCE CHUKWURA: My husband and the brother, and all those about 400 people who were following them…they were shot in front of the Police
station at Asaba. I held on to the person I saw, the soldier…I said: “why did you kill my husband?”…(she pauses and continues) I don’t want to remember what
happened. The man with the button of the gun, hit me on the chest and said: “woman, if you are not careful, you’ll get killed as well”. At that point, I went home to
tell them (the people home) that they (my husband and his brother) had been killed.
Papa, (that’s my father-in-law), when he heard that his two sons were killed, he went out and before he could say, “what happened?” they shot him, they killed him.
NARRATOR: On October 6, in an attempt to end the violence, the leaders summoned all the town’s people to a peaceful match, pledging loyalty to Nigeria. On the morning
of October 7, thousands of men, women and children from every quarter of Asaba joined the parade singing and dancing.
SURVIVOR 6, PATRICK OKONKWO: They came, in the normal Asaba way, with a gong announcing that the soldiers were already in Asaba, killing people that if we can come to
welcome them and declare peace with them, we would be spared.
SURVIVOR 7 (MKPAYAH): We started hearing…you know…dancing group, saying “One Nigeira, One Nigeria…” so along the line, we said “let us go,” myself and my cousin.
So, as we were coming out towards the road, that time the group, the dancing group, the soldiers were surrounding them, guiding them…i.e. Nigerian soldiers carrying
guns…
SURVIVOR 6 continues: …and they lined up, said “women here men here…”
SURVIVOR 2 (PETER OKONJO): And women who came with their sons were removing their skirts and blouses to disguise (their sons). So when I saw this scenario going on, I
felt “something is wrong…if these women can disguise their children and my mother is not here, what do I do?” and I looked at the whole place…there is no avenue
for escape.
SURVIVOR 8 (MEDUA URAIH): They took us to a certain quarter and eventually the man who was the captain…he ordered them to start shooting us.
SURVIVOR 2: Gunshots…people were falling. So when people fell, I fell with them.
SURVIVOR 1, IFY URIAH: And they continued shooting, and shooting, and shooting. I lost count of times, I don’t know how long….after sometimes, there was silence. And
surprisingly, other people stood up from the ground and fled into the bush. I stood up also, but, I saw a cousin of mine who was lying not too far from me. He was shot
on the head. My body was covered with blood but I knew that I was safe, nothing had happened (to me).
My cousin said we should wait until it was dark, so we could go together and I agreed. You could hear the sound of the injured, crying…
NARRATOR: That evening, some women went to retrieve the bodies of their children, husbands and other family members. Joseph Nwajei lost two brothers aged 17 and 12.
SURVIVOR 9, JOSEPH NWAJEI: Mum in the evening, was able to identify their (my two brothers’) corpses, took them in a wheelbarrow, pushed them into the family house (he
pauses for a while amidst heavy tears and continues)…where they were buried. (He pauses again, wipes tears white a handkerchief and continues). I never saw their
corpses, never saw their bodies.
NARRATOR: But most were buried in mass Grave with no opportunity to require ceremony.
SURVIVOR 10, EMEKA OKONKWO: Though I was so small, I remember what I saw-lifeless bodies. My dad was among those people that buried the dead. He left the house with a
shovel, and this scented leaf, he put it in his nostril that would enable them to stand the stench there.
SURVIVOR 11, FRANK IJEH: It was after when they have decayed…you know…smelling all over…that the people there gathered and dug a common grave and they started putting them in. There are so many…I cannot remember…so many, so many.
NARRATOR: Many towns’ people ran into the bush all across to the East. The troops remained in Asaba and threat of rape hung on many women and girls.
SURVIVOR 12, FEMALE, NAKANDELIN MADUEMEZIA: (Speaking of the women) they were forcibly married by soldiers. I have an aunt who was forcible married by a soldier.
Children were raped, adults, even old women were raped too.
SURVIVOR 13, FEMALE, DELICIOUS NWANDU: And even when they saw that you are a young girl, they would forcibly take you as their wife. That is, if you don’t want, they
kill (you).
NARRATOR: As people trekked back, they found the once thriving town deserted, houses burned and everything of value stolen.
Later, Quaker Relief Services reported on the appalling situation in Asaba: “about 900 of the 1,186 houses were completely destroyed. Three hundred more are
uninhabitable because roofs are missing.
Schools are symbols of self-respect. Their present condition is a constant reminder of the humiliating situation in which the town finds itself. The furniture was used
by Nigerian soldiers as firewood.”
SURVIVOR 13 continues: We have no home to enter, no house to enter. Our house was burned down, everything. In fact, where we went, we had to be tying; you know the
bags they put rice and beans…that’s what we tied, because there were no clothes, nothing to hide our nakedness. A lot of children (suffered) Kwashiokor. You know,
people were dying just like that. We ate rats, lizards…in fact, Asaba suffered.
NARRATOR: Exactly how many died on October 7 (only) is not clear. Between 500 and 800 seemed likely. In addition to hundreds killed in the previous day, many families
were designated.
SURVIVOR 11 continues: My immediate elder brother, the one following him, and one of my cousins, three of them were killed (though they were harmless civilians).
NARRATOR: Patience Chukwura was a young mother, pregnant with her fourth child. She lost her husband, Eddie, two brothers-in-law, and her father-in-law.
Hwr.mother lost all five brothers.
SURVIVOR 3, PATIENCE CHUKWURA continues: You need to know who my husband was. Harmless, couldn’t harm anybody. He liked life, he liked himself, and he was a lovely
man.
NARRATOR: Philip Asiodu, an Asaba indigene, was a member of General Gowon’s war cabinet in Lagos. His brother Sydney, was an Olympic athlete, living in Asaba when
troops arrived. His diary, found after the war, ends on October 6. His fate is unknown.
SURVIVOR 15, PHILIP ASIODU: He was my favorite brother and he was outstanding as a student. He was captain of cricket, captain of soccer. He was a sprinter, and was
in the Nigerian 4×100 meter relay team. So it was a great loss to the family. Of course, one tries to forgive.
SURVIVOR 16, FEMALE, MARTINA OSAI: (Martina was 14 years old when soldiers killed her father, Leo Isichei, on October 7, along with almost 40 men in her extended
family). My father’s name is Leo Samuel Isichei. He was a teacher, a darling father. We looked up to him so much, he was everything to us. He wanted to bring his
children up, to make sure they had education. I want people to know, because not many people know what happened, even my own children. God knows why I had to survive.
For me to have a story to tell, and that’s what I’m telling you now (the narrate).
NARRATOR: For decades, the massacre of Asaba remained almost unknown outside the community. In 1967 the Nigerian Press was tightly controlled and few foreign reporters
were not on ground. In the words of Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, the Mid-West Igbo were the most vulnerable Nigerians. The world actually became famous in 1968,
after the federal government imposed the blockade starving Biafrans to death and submission in 1970.
Silence (on the massacre) began to lift in the mid 1990. In 2001, some survivors testified in Nigeria Human Rights Violation Investigation Commission known as the
Okudo panel which set the stage for more people to speak.
SURVIVOR 17, CHUCK NDUKA-EZE: (speaking about the panel) it was for us, the first opportunity. We were going to have to even air the matter. But the aim was really to
begin something by way of a healing process. If you wrong somebody and the person has an opportunity to talk about it, assuming you show some contrition, you
apologise, or you go some way to alleviating their pain and suffering, then the healing process can begin.
We must know tell our history.
By: Grassroots Publishers
