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Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Politics / Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) (32966 Views)
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Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by Jfrankination(m): 12:09am On Jun 01, 2017 |
he is going for second term..trynna get d peoples heart...simple Logic |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by KillJoy62(m): 12:46am On Jun 01, 2017 |
toofit007:don't worry we wld surprise dis unholy union called nigeria, i believe it is time d people wld learn dat truly nigeria is a failed state, my problem is still people wld keep hoping it would get better. even fela saw it nd was shouting it, but still nothing was done about it. as for 2019 election, won't bother myself coming out to vote sef. 1 Like |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by ExpiredNigeria: 1:33am On Jun 01, 2017 |
Under their very own eyes.. We're becoming what they never thought we'd be 4 Likes |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by modik(m): 5:47am On Jun 01, 2017 |
toofit007: With the wave of Biafra consciousness in the Eastern bloc, I'm afraid if general election would hold there in 2019! 1 Like |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by Adiola(f): 5:58am On Jun 01, 2017 |
[quote author=AtlanticBreeze post=57069085][/quote]my brother I find it difficult to disagree with u .....this same obiano released a statement through his press secretary that ipob were the ones who attacked the army last year may 30 with charms,dynamites and guns ...he never did anything about the people killed in nkpor instead he labelled touts Imported from neighbouring States and visited mosque instead the church pls my brother obiano has seen the hand writing on the wall and any mistake can cost him reelection thanks 2 Likes |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by Nobody: 6:29am On Jun 01, 2017 |
- To find a future, you must look into your past - Thanks to Obiano. 8 Likes |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by daveson2020(m): 9:02am On Jun 01, 2017 |
Good morning Mr obiano, it's already too late for you we are not voting for you again under your watch they slaughtered my friends and families we want you out. 2 Likes |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by Nobody: 9:37am On Jun 01, 2017 |
If each one could teach one and each one to reach one, what a beautiful world we would live in - Chaz B |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by Benekruku(m): 9:37am On Jun 01, 2017 |
Waste of public funds! |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by BLACKdagger: 9:38am On Jun 01, 2017 |
subtlemee:Nobody is trying to intimidade u. U arr d one bringing everythin upon ur self Atleast with a little functioning brain, u shuold know when to make useless comments 2 Likes |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by tiswell(m): 9:39am On Jun 01, 2017 |
greenermodels:shut da fvck up! Akpokue global''is the best thing to have happened to ndi Anambra...indeed enemies of progress lives with us 2 Likes |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by BigBrother9ja: 9:39am On Jun 01, 2017 |
Agumbankembu:SO THERE STAFF IS EVA BOTTLE WATER? NONSENSE LEADER |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by tiswell(m): 9:40am On Jun 01, 2017 |
subtlemee:''You men's'' 1 Like |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by agitator: 9:40am On Jun 01, 2017 |
Agumbankembu: Why did you leave out Port Harcourt. |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by ahonye15: 9:41am On Jun 01, 2017 |
Who you help! Who cares |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by Benekruku(m): 9:42am On Jun 01, 2017 |
The names written on the cenotaph re not up to 3,000,000. Were they not documented? |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by LexngtonSteele: 9:44am On Jun 01, 2017 |
I wonder why he was too scared to do this when PMB was healthy IPOB fear Aboki pass anything |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by ipodstinks: 9:44am On Jun 01, 2017 |
By kelvin Amurun. The Nigerian civil war from 6 July 1967 to 1 January 1970 was fought to counter the secession of Biafra from Nigeria. Biafra was a nationalistic aspiration of the Eastern Igbo people at that time and it was borne from the fact that they could no longer coexist with the Northern dominated federal government. The Nigerian Civil war otherwise known as the Biafra war attracted international attention due to the brutal events of that period. How the conflict was interpreted by foreigners and Nigerians cannot be over emphasised. The conflict took a toll of human lives. The Igbo tragedy was largely perpetrated in Northern Nigeria, however there was a forgotten tragedy that most international and national observers over looked. The forgotten Biafra ethnic minorities- Efik, Ogoja, Ibibio etc and the Mid West (Urhobo, Edo, Itsekiris, Isoko, Asaba) experience during the Biafra invasion and the Federal Government occupation. Each time I get into debate with my Igbo brothers and the issue of marginalisation, distrust and ethnic cleansing is shown to my face in a one dimensional sense, I have often reacted with the question….Is warfare one-sided? And who is marginalising who in Nigeria? The slaughter, rape and torture of the people of the mid west have not been fully blown out in the open until now. Many present day Mid Westerners of my generation have no clue on what actually transpired in a Biafra occupied Mid Western region and what transpired among the Biafra minorities in the East. This write up is not to point a blaming finger at anyone but is meant to catalyse the objectivity of the individuals from the various regions of Nigeria to sense aright the issue of marginalisation and also to show the reader that the sins of warfare and conflicts is not one-sided. This write up will have to kill the delusion and one sided bias of that question…..WHO IS MARGINALISING WHO and what really happened to the Southern minorities during the war. In Omakas book titled The Forgotten Victims: Ethnic Minorities in Nigeria Biafra War, 1967-1970, he said: The gory experiences suffered by the Biafra minorities have largely been neglected in the historiography of the Biafra war. This write up will also assert that the atrocities perpetuated by Biafra soldiers on Biafra minorities during those early and late months of the war has largely been hidden from the public debate hence they should be accorded due recognition of victim hood. Following the massacre of the Igbo people living up North, the Federal Government responded to the Igbo secession with “police action” that was partially military. I will not go into the reason for these atrocities. That is not the purpose of this write up. However it must be pointed out that blame for atrocities must not be one sided. The Igbo people had a right to defend themselves and the UN recognition against genocide gives a people the right to secede. This is not debatable. Wikipedia states that the Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of war. This convention is binding to all warring parties. The dominating argument of the Nigeria Biafra War is that the Igbo were targeted for extermination by the Muslim North. International media played a significant role in exposing humanitarian tragedies especially in Igbo speaking parts of Biafra. However not much was reported on the atrocities perpetuated against minorities in Biafra both by the Nigerian military forces and Biafra militias. A Newsweek magazine once report that some of the worst massacres of the war occurred when the federal troops captured minority regions whereupon minority tribesmen turned on the Ibos in blood fury. The quote presents Igbo as victims in the hands of minorities without referencing the experience the minorities suffered in the Igbo dominated region before the arrival of the federal troops. There was another report stating that Ibos were killed by the local people in their thousands in the Mid West on arrival of federal troops. No one seems to ask the question…..why was this the case? It is not denying the fact that Igbo were massacred during the civil war, however there is an error in the representation of the victims of the massacre. The number one question is: Attributing the 1966 massacre in the North as only Igbos is an error of judgement. In the G C M Onyiuke led tribunal, it was clearly shown that ethnic minority groups in Eastern and Mid Western Nigeria were victims. It was easy to mistake an ethnic minority for Igbo apart from mere physical appearance there was no other distinct feature to differentiate Igbo from non Igbo. You cannot tell unlike the Yoruba or Hausa facial marks. Ethnic minorities were also killed. While the Igbos retreated back to the East to form a defence line and secede, no one seems to ask the question if the Biafra ethnic minorities (present day Cross River, Akwa Ibom etc) were actually consulted on the need to secede and if they agreed. The argument that the war was only Hausa Fulani and Igbo is purely too simplistic. In the early days of Nigeria, the domination of the three major ethnic groups of Yoruba, Hausa Fulani and Igbo in the political atmosphere of Nigeria was obvious. The leaders of the ethnic minority ethnic groups had found themselves in a disadvantaged position in the entire federal political equation. As a result of this, minority leaders in different regions began to form movements that started the agitation for the creation of more states were their interest will be largely protected. Some of this movement included the Calaber Ogoja River (COR) state, Mid West State movement and Middle Belt State movement. This movement agitated for minority rights in the larger state. The leaders of the state creation movement believed that the formation of their states will eliminate the domination of the major ethnic groups. In Chinua Achebes book titled There was a Country, he had this to say on the Niger Delta Region page 47: …”The minorities of the Niger Delta, Mid West and the Middle Belt were always uncomfortable with the notion that they had to fit into the tripod of the largest ethnic groups that was Nigeria…….many of them Ijaw, Kanuri, Ibibio, Tiv, Itsekiri, Isang, Urhobo, Anang and Efik were from ancient nation states in their own right. Their leaders however, often had to subsume their own ethnic ambitions within alliances with one of the big three groups in order to attain greater political results. And so during the civil war this minority groups were faced with a great dilemma. THE CONFLICT AND WAR CRIMES. Revelations about the war atrocities on the minorities have emerged recently. New surviving records, physical evidences and oral histories of the war suggest that minorities in Biafra and mid west became individual and collective victims of the war. The Biafra minorities did not have a say in the succession. A prolific journalist named Suzanne Cronje on the Biafra war stated that the feelings of the minorities were difficult to define. Loyalties were in fact divided. The cry out for a separate state by the minorities was not a clamour to secede. When the war broke out, Biafra had stationed some of its troops in the Cross River region including Ikun in Biase Local Government. Though the Ikun initially supported Biafra and had friendly relations with the soldiers, as time went on tensions emerged. Some Ikun men were suspected of collaborating with Nigerian soldiers with no hard evidence. As a result murder, arrests, looting and rapes was meted on that community. William Norris of the London Times who visited Biafra reported an eye witness account of how Ibibio men were surrounded and beaten to death in Umuahia on April 2 1968. They were reportedly forced to march across an open space while the local people attacked them with sticks and clubs. On another episode, Biafra soldiers took Ikun men to Ohafia for a meeting but never came back with them. An informant alleged that soldiers returned to the community and rounded up some men within their reach and shot them. A survivor who lost her four day old son and grandmother seemed to have suspected foul play from the Ohafia people with whom they share a common boundary. This victimization continued until the Biafra headquarters issued a statement to stop the genocide. However by this time, the remaining people had escaped leaving behind only soldiers and Ohafia, also some Ikun with a mixed blood of half Ohafia. B J Ikpeme a Senior Medical Officer in the then Eastern region revealed atrocities perpetuated by Biafra soldiers against the minorities in towns of present day Cross River and Akwa Ibom States. Ikpemes argument was that Ojukwu`s declaration of Biafra was done against the wishes of the majority of Calaber, Ogoja and Rivers provinces who for many years had agitated for a separate state and not a secession from Nigeria. They were never consulted and Ikpeme also argued that the Igbo leadership had concluded plans of either to force the five million non Igbo speaking Biafra minorities to accept Biafra or eliminate them out rightly. It was on this basis that soldiers were quickly sent to the minority areas to keep down the people, detain or kill anyone who raises an opposing voice against Biafra. In Asang town alone about 400 people were carried away to unknown destinations and never came back. Attan Onoyon town suffered the same fate. Enyong was burnt down and many people killed by Biafra soldiers. Biafra soldiers shot many villagers in Ekpenyong, present day Akwa Ibom. On October 18 1967, about 169 civilians in detention were lined up by Biafra soldiers and shot (source: New York Times as an informational advertisement by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria New York). There was a special operations group within the Biafra forces called Biafra Organisation of Freedom Fighter (BOFF). It was set up in Bende. The objective of the special operations was to suppress the enemy within. On the disappearance of a Major Archibong, investigations revealed that members of the special operations decapitated their victims for ritual purposes. Head hunting in warfare was a cultural practice in some parts of Biafra known as old Bende. The minorities in Rivers area seemed worse off. Apart from torture and other forms of human rights abuses, they were also evicted from their homes and Igbo names were allocated to streets. Some Kalabari young men were evicted and sent to Umuahia, Owerri, Abiriba and Ozuitem most likely to avoid infiltration of the enemies. Chief Samuel Mbakwe a Biafra Provincial Administrator of the Okigwe Province had noted the influx of refugees from Port Harcourt. An Irish priest who served in Rivers State reported that the Igbo soldiers were suspicious of some Rivers people who sometimes led federal troops through their lines along hidden creeks. This attitude, according to the priest, created a mixture of panic, fear, and hatred among the Biafra troops towards some indigenous people of Rivers State. People who were maltreated were said to have been involved in this act of “sabotage” against Biafra. It is asserted that no fewer than six thousand Rivers people were sent to different refugee camps in Igboland. The truth must be told. This ppl hide this from the war history. Time has come to tell the world their atrocities.. If it sure for you and you have strong back up, discredit this. 1 Like 1 Share |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by sukkot: 9:47am On Jun 01, 2017 |
willie baba. eku ishe sir. ile ishe yin o ni jono sir. |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by lonelydora: 9:49am On Jun 01, 2017 |
Agumbankembu: We will soon be there. 1 Like |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by PureMe01: 9:53am On Jun 01, 2017 |
LexngtonSteele:d way Abiola no fear abi?? wetin hold u to enter lagoon since fear no dey ur body?...words of a brave slave to their NORTHERN masters,AFONJAs!!! 6 Likes 1 Share |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by bayocanny: 9:53am On Jun 01, 2017 |
anthony86:Which voice? Dey there dey deceive yourself |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by Guyman02: 9:55am On Jun 01, 2017 |
subtlemee: You can call it propaganda but it means a lot to Igbos, every effort to remember our fallen heroes is appreciated. 4 Likes |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by Nobody: 9:56am On Jun 01, 2017 |
subtlemee:See dem2x they don come back again now! 3 Likes 1 Share
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Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by LexngtonSteele: 9:56am On Jun 01, 2017 |
[s] PureMe01:[/s] Abiola never backed down unlike Ojukwu who won 1967 Olympics 100m sprint & Marathon for Biafra |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by PureMe01: 9:57am On Jun 01, 2017 |
LexngtonSteele:we all know whom d slaves of the abokis are and we all know as well whom d AFONJAs are answerable to...try something better,u can only succeed in deceiving urself 3 Likes |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by Stallione(m): 9:59am On Jun 01, 2017 |
subtlemee:Sometin dat i witnessed.Yoruba girls eeeh!!! 1 Like |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by merits(m): 10:01am On Jun 01, 2017 |
I can't see my name..................... ;DI can't see my name..................... |
Re: Obiano Remembers Biafran Heroes, Erects Cenotaph With Their Names (Photos) by Benekruku(m): 10:01am On Jun 01, 2017 |
Enjoy the seat Obiano! APC is coming for Anambra and absolutely nothing can stop it! |
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