Dedetwo:


I guess Gowon knew Victor Banjo more than Ojukwu did. Gowon flatly rejected Victor Banjo pleas.

kimbraa:
Ojukwu wasn't a coward. He intended to fight the war to the end but failed to calculate his stakes which where high. For a secessionist Biafra to have succeeded, they needed foreign allies who were ready to supply them arms and ammunition at any beck and call which Gowon cut off on most sides but Nigeria had the advantage 'cause it already had allies. Britain for example. Who wins a war without arms?. It wasn't wrestling.

Would you have rather let him lo0se and give Gowon the joy of having his head on a spike for felony and other charges?. I guess "No" so he let the agitation die and deprive Gowon the joy of having him executed.

Deo1986:
The reasons why the key actors in the civil war has refuse to speak on the banjo issue is because banjo has already been blacklisted by the Nigerian side long before the outbreak of the war and instead of sticking to the biafra side like philip effiong, he tried to prove his loyalty to the federal side by passing information to them. Which was his undoing. His children should get over it and come to terms with the fact that their father was a traitor.

konoplyanka:


What about ifeajuna and others?

akosanwafo:


No wonder. She needs to brush up on her History. It's clear that she is completely clueless about her father's role in the January 1966 Coup.
Let her study a bit of history and her father's ignoble role, and why no one in the west mourned him, and gave him a pariah status

Then she will not come out to spew this kind of rubbish and make a big fool of herself here. Her father was cunning and ambitious and betrayed his own people and was instrumental to the deaths of other Yoruba military officers in 1966.
You can't whitewash history.

Deo1986:
Ifeajuna tiil his dieing day lived a life of regret:that the coup did not work as planned. His alliance with Ojukwu was halfhearted. Ojukwu knew this he also knew that men like Ifeajuna, nzeogwu, banjo and others were intellectuals like himself and probably more daring and rugged than him. Since two captains cannot pilot a ship, he sought for a way to do away with those chap

ichidodo:
Your Dad was a fuccking traitor.... Go figure.

Guestlander:


Now you are talking. All the crap about betrayal was just a smokescreen.

chicoMX:
Your father was a traitor!
He and Ifeajuna negotiated with the NA.

cristianisraeli:
Fifty years ago, the late Lt. Col Victor Banjo, the 16th Nigerian to be commissioned into the Nigerian Army, was publicly executed reportedly on the orders of the late Ikemba Nnewi, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, who was then the Military Head of the secessionist Biafra Republic. He was an Ijebu from Ogun State but died fighting on the Biafran side during the Nigerian civil war.
Banjo was before his death, in detention on allegations that he took part in the January 1966 coup, was released by Ojukwu when the war broke out and convinced to lead part of the Liberation Army, which went on the offensive against the Nigerian Army and got as far as Benin, in present day Edo State. Banjo was to declare another republic upon having Benin under his control.
In this interview with Dare Odufowokan, Assistant Editor, his daughter, Mrs. Olayinka Omigbodun, a Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Ibadan, recalls how Banjo’s young family was thrown into disarray upon his arrest and detention. She also lamented what she described as the unjust treatment meted out to her father while explaining why she thinks Ojukwu killed his friend, her father.

How does it feel remembering the events that led to the reported execution of your father (Lt. Col. Victor Banjo)?

First and foremost, I must express gratitude to God for keeping us alive and well all these years. Despite the fact that we lost our father while still so young, God has kept us to see this day. We are four children, two boys, two girls. I am the third. We’ve all been able to go through school and acquire degrees. All of us are alive and healthy.

I thank God for the kind of parents he gave me. Our father died 50 years ago and our mum 20 years ago. She was a widow for 30 years before she also went to be with the Lord. I am proud of them. It was 30 years of struggle and difficulty, but with our late mother determined to fulfil her promise to our dad, we made it.

Why do you think he did that to his friend?

He conveniently blamed Banjo and three other men. Lt. Col Ifeajuna, Alele and one other for sabotaging the Biafran efforts. He needed to tell the people who were losing faith in him something new as a reason for the defeats. His fear about the imminent fall of Enugu was also driving him to do something. So, on trumped up charges, my father and three other men were tried by a Kangaroo court and killed by firing squad in 1967.

The trial did not reveal any evidence linking Banjo with any act of treason against Ojukwu or the Biafran government. In fact, it took a second military tribunal to convict Banjo because the first tribunal stated that the evidence presented to it was insufficient to prove Banjo’s guilt in the case. Unsatisfied and not ready to let my father off the hook, Ojukwu constituted another tribunal speedily.

Apparently, it was a clear case of sacrificing someone as a scapegoat because while my father was looking forward to assisting Ojukwu further with the Biafran war in spite of the huge risk and sacrifice involved for him as a person, Ojukwu was looking for a way of implicating him for sabotage so as to retain the control of the region. Ojukwu betrayed my father by killing him.


And you don’t think his not agreeing in the secession was a reason he got into trouble with Ojukwu?

Well, they were friends and friends disagree. They probably must have disagreed on that before then because my father never hid his patriotism. But again, I was told that hours after the execution, Enugu fell. I am a Professor. Human beings are very fickle. We are wont to always look for excuses. For scapegoats; so, my father was simply the sacrifice.

He knew my father was up for one Nigeria. Even before drafting him into the war on his side, he knew my father was a patriot who wanted one united Nigeria. After the war we left Nigeria for Sierra Leone but my mother brought us back because my father, in his letters, had insisted we must be raised as Nigerians. So, his patriotism was never in doubt. Ojukwu merely executed him to cover up his own failures as a leader of the war.

But Gowon later became the Head of State. Why didn’t he release your dad?

After Gowon was installed as Head of State, my father made several overtures to him for his release. But Gen. Gowon refused to release him even though he knew he was not part of the coup. The only concession he gave was that Banjo could be transferred to a prison in Lagos if he so wished. My father rejected the offer.

Even when my father wrote Ironsi from prison in Ikot Ekpene, on June 1, 1966, he was wondering what on earth he did to warrant being imprisoned. He faulted the way he was being treated and asked for justice, fairness and loyalty from Ironsi as a loyal officer. He saw his detention as a grievous crime against him. He pleaded his innocence and asked to be released. There is really no basis for tagging him as a ‘coupist’. I sincerely think setting the records straight is one of the things Nigeria, and the likes of Gen. Gowon, owe us as his family and children.

It is very painful for us not knowing how he ended really. Not knowing where his remains are. Not even the exact date of his death. We only read in the book of a foreign journalist who had witnessed his execution of the date and circumstances. Beyond that, there is little or nothing to prove how he ended. This is very sad.

http://thenationonlineng.net/victor-banjos-daughter-ojukwu-betrayed-father-killing/

Dedetwo:


At least, the enemy knows Ndigbo will put up a determined effort. The real fear of Nigeria and its creator, Britain, is not actually the country of Biafra but a militarized country of Biafra.

Tomoarika:
To me Col Banjo remains the most misunderstood character of that period.

He wasn't a participant of the Jan 66 coup although he could have supported the reasons behind it as he was considered by the young majors (from Wale Ademoyega's account) yet he was punished for it.
Was he ever tried and found guilty as part of the Jan 66 group? No

Now when he was released by his friend Ojukwu, did he really have a choice as to whether to fight for Biafra or not?

What were his real reasons for halting at Ore?

Remember the Midwest region had been declared a neutral territory prior to the Midwest invasion whereby the then Mil Gov Ejoor refused the FG from keeping troops in the Midwest.
With the Federal troops bearing down on the capital Enugu, the attempt to take Lagos could have brought relief to Biafra but this failed leading the FG to declare a full out war against the rebels (as they were called)

Wale Ademoyega claimed in his book that the four; Banjo, Ifeajuna, Alale and Agbam were executed on the charge "Intention to Overthrow" rather than an actual attempt at it which shouldn't have been enough for the sentence.


Banjo could be a scapegoat, a traitor, a victim of circumstances depending on who you ask. Truth is, we may never know which. It's a pity dead men tell no tales.

That period was just a crazy one. May we not experience another like it.

ichidodo:
Your Dad was a fuccking traitor.... Go figure.

Bolustical:
What do you expect from:

Someone who could sacrifice three million people for his ambition?

Someone who could leave Effiong in the cold to face the music alone only to come and get pardon and contest elections later?

I am very sure no Igbo man can replicate what Fajuyi, Banjo and others did to Yorubas or other Nigerians.

omenka:
We just keep re- opening very old wounds.

Naija I hail o.

Alexis11:




. These people will never change


These are still the same set of people that will be crying for pity and calling international community for just a python dance......


Clowns

humilitypays:
‎To be honest with you, I love Yorubas....I respect great Yoruba men like Fajuyi, Wole Soyinka, Gani Fayemi, Fela Kuti, etc....but from what I read from foreign war journalists about the Nigeria-Biafra civil war of 1967 - 1969, Col. Banjo sabotaged Ojukwu's effort in order to get favour from Gowon so that Gowon could pardon him and free him.

So he being part of the Biafran commanders leading the Biafra army to take over Lagos so that Nigeria could surrender and the war end fast since Ojukwu knew Biafra had little resources to sustain a long civil war with British-backed Nigeria side.

How did Banjo sabotage Biafra?

Biafran soldiers had already overran Nigerian soldiers up to Ore and were supposed to head to Sagamu and into Lagos....Banjo being the commander who didnt want Biafran soldiers to capture Lagos delayed the operation by days intentionally and sending signals to Gowon about Ojukwu's Biafra soldiers advance towards Lagos....

Remember, Gowon was already planning to relocate the Nigerian government headquarter to Kaduna but with this alleged tip off from Banjo, Nigerian soldiers regrouped from Kaduna, Kano, Jos, etc with British backup to mount full attack on Biafra soldiers at Ore who then pulled back to Benin....that operation was led by Obasanjo.

So Banjo miscalculated....remember in military, no friend, no brother when it comes to sabotage....its usually firing squad, sadly.

May his good soul continue to rest in peace. Its really sad still.‎

olayinkaboss11:
Ojukwu shouldn't have killed Banjo, cuz a veteran like Banjo and Ifeajuna would have help him to save Enugu from falling to the Nigeria's Army

humilitypays:
‎To be honest with you, I love Yorubas....I respect great Yoruba men like Fajuyi, Wole Soyinka, Gani Fayemi, Fela Kuti, etc....but from what I read from foreign war journalists about the Nigeria-Biafra civil war of 1967 - 1969, Col. Banjo sabotaged Ojukwu's effort in order to get favour from Gowon so that Gowon could pardon him and free him to return to Nigeria. So Banjo joined Biafra for some hidden agenda....he was on Biafran side to get info for Gowon to facilitate his pardon.

So he being part of the Biafran commanders leading the Biafra army to take over Lagos so that Nigeria could surrender and the war end fast since Ojukwu knew Biafra had little resources to sustain a long civil war with British-backed Nigeria side.

How did Banjo sabotage Biafra?

Biafran soldiers had already overran Nigerian soldiers up to Ore and were supposed to head to Sagamu and into Lagos....Banjo being the commander who didnt want Biafran soldiers to capture Lagos delayed the operation by days intentionally and sending signals to Gowon about Ojukwu's Biafra soldiers advance towards Lagos....

Remember, Gowon was already planning to relocate the Nigerian government headquarter to Kaduna but with this alleged tip off from Banjo, Nigerian soldiers regrouped from Kaduna, Kano, Jos, etc with British backup to mount full attack on Biafra soldiers at Ore who then pulled back to Benin....that operation was led by Obasanjo.

So Banjo miscalculated....remember in military, no friend, no brother when it comes to sabotage....its usually firing squad, sadly.

May his good soul continue to rest in peace. Its really sad still.‎

Gaddafithe2nd:

Ojukwu was a coward and a self centred person, if Ojukwu wasn't a coward he would have surrendered himself and won't leave his people in the hands of death. Ojukwu fled to Ivory Coast via Sao Tome and Principe. As for Banjo, was a traitor and a double agent. Every double agents in this life always die mysteriously. Banjo wasn't different from Ashraf Marwan a double agent that worked for both Egypt/Israel.

People should take side of anyone in Nigerian civil war, have read different account both side were fighting for power, money and influence.

oodualover:
[s][/s]
What were shameless IBO's looking for in the south west?

Adebowale89:
one would only realized the nemesis of the failed actualization of Biafra. Nigeria govt sacrifice blood, so also Biafra govt led by ojukwu did


banjo get his reward because all Yorubas never go against one Nigeria, so he tend to fight against his people in the first place

if he's not against one Nigerian as her daughter painted, why did he joined Biafra army? what was his motive? to preach unity to biafrans thru militarian approaches?