November 29, 2021

Renowned Professor of Medicine and the Asagba of Asaba, Chike Edozien has proposed a dialogue between the Asaba people and the Federal Government over the October 1967 massacre of Asaba people by Federal troops months into the civil war.

The Asagba made the proposition when Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo visited him at his palace in Asaba. The vice-president was in Asaba to inaugurate the new Delta state secretariat complex and an independent power project, also in the state capital.

Osinbajo commended the naming of the new Delta secretariat in Asaba after the Asagba.

Osinbajo, who noted that the traditional ruler was deserving of the honour, both as a medical practitioner and traditional ruler, described the edifice as one of the best in the country.

Meanwhile, the royal father has expressed appreciation to the state government for honouring him by naming the secretariat after him.

Aside requesting  for dialogue between the Federal Government and the Asaba people over the ‘1967 Asaba massacre’, Edozien also called for the establishment of a federal university in the area as a compensation for the hardship endured by the people during the war.

The vice-president was on one-day working visit to the state to inaugurate some projects.

He was accompanied on the visit by Gov. Douye Diri of Bayesa and Miniority Leader in the House of Representatives, Mr Ndudi Elumelu.

Recall that around October 5, Federal troops overran the old Midwestern region from Benin to Asaba. While in Asaba, the federal soldiers reportedly 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 towns people 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 cloth) 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.

There and then the Federal troops brought out their hitherto concealed  machine guns, and orders were given, reportedly by Second-in-Command, Maj. Ibrahim Taiwo, to open fire. It is estimated that more than 700 men and boys were killed, some as young as 12 years old, in addition to many more killed in the preceding days.