Krypt0s:
Even those that were not born during the war are shouting murderer, killer of asaba pple...I understand ur sentiments
but none of u re speaking with facts here....rather than throwing insults about y not bring fwd ur proof!!

We learnt from EYEWITNESSES.
See below

Asaba Massacre: Seeking Healing 50 Years After

By Azuka Onwuka On Oct 6, 2017

It is not a good sight watching an adult fight tears, then start crying. Even though the event happened 50 years ago, it was hard for Dr Ify Uraih to recount without being weighed down by emotions.

Uraih, over the weekend at the palace of the Asagba of Asaba, recounted how he and his father and two brothers faced a hail of bullets on October 7, 1967 at the Ogbe-Osowa Square in Asaba, where they had gathered to welcome the federal troops during the Nigerian Civil War. He was lucky to escape but his father and brothers were not lucky.

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 the most callous incident of the Nigerian Civil War.

When the Nigerian troops pushed out the Biafran troops from the Midwestern Region during the war, the Biafran troops retreated across the River Niger and broke the Niger Bridge. The Second Division of the Nigerian Army, led by Lt. Col. Murtala Mohammed, entered Asaba on October 4, 1967. 
Between October 4 and 6, there were reports that the Nigerian soldiers killed men and boys of Asaba, on the allegation that they were sympathetic to the Biafrans or collaborated with the Biafran soldiers. In a bid to stop these killings, the elders of Asaba decided to embark on a parade through Asaba streets on October 7, which would culminate at the Ogbe-Osowa Square, to pledge their support for “One Nigeria.” The towncrier went round the community to inform the people, to come out dressed in their traditional white attire called akwa ocha for the ceremony.

On the fateful day, the people trooped out, dressed in their traditional white Asaba attire, chanting “One Nigeria,” waving the Nigerian flag and pledging their loyalty to Nigeria. 
At the town square, they were addressed by Major Ibrahim Taiwo, who tongue-lashed them and accused the people of Asaba of hiding Biafran soldiers and sympathising with the Biafran soldiers. He threatened to kill all of them. Soldiers mounted machine guns and automatic rifles around the square facing them. It looked like a joke to many of those gathered there.

Some Asaba men, including the father of Mrs Maryam Babangida, former First Lady, Mr Nwanonye Okogwu, spoke on behalf of the Asaba people, telling the soldiers that they were civilians who were not taking part in the war. The Asaba people requested that the civilian population be allowed to leave town, so that the soldiers could take care of those they were after.

The Nigerian soldiers asked that the crowd march around the town to ask all those who were inside to come out, so that anybody not at the square would be taken as a dissident. The men and boys were separated from the women. The men and boys were marched out. A few metres away, those who had returned from the North and therefore understood Hausa heard a soldier tell other soldiers to take them in little groups of 10 for elimination. Dr Uraih recalled that his elder brother resisted joining the first group of 10 people. He was shot in the back and killed. Some people wanted to flee but were gunned down. And so the guns began to boom as the men and boys were mowed down.

Long after the shooting stopped and the soldiers left, leaving death and blood behind, the few lucky survivors and the injured dragged themselves out of the place of death.
Uraih, who was about 15 years old then, survived but his father Mr Robert Uraih, and his two brothers, Emma and Paul, lay dead. The next day, he came back with a wheelbarrow to take away the bodies of his father and brothers for burial to avoid having them buried in mass graves or eaten by scavengers.

It is estimated that after the three-day killing of civilians in Asaba by the soldiers, over a thousand fell victim. 
Asaba was left with widows and orphans. Almost every family lost a son or father. The only male survivors were those who had earlier fled Asaba before the arrival of the Nigerian troops or those who were too old or sick to come out to the square.

The strangest part of this massacre was that it was unprovoked and done in cold blood and in deceit. The victims had no inkling that such a fate awaited them. Who could imagine that people dressed in white, chanting their allegiance to One Nigeria would be gunned down by the same soldiers they were pledging allegiance to?

For decades, Asaba has lived with this horrific and traumatic experience in silence. Their story was swallowed by the events of the Nigerian Civil War, especially the starving children of Biafra. 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 tales told about them.

Even though Asaba people have decided to forgive and move on, Nigeria has not been able to find a solution to its lack of respect for human lives. Because it has never taken any decisive step to punish those who waste human lives with impunity, the impunity to kill has continued over the decades in different parts of the country, whether in Odi or Zaki-Biam. This lack of punishment for cold-blooded murder of civilians has emboldened more government agents to kill more civilians.

That those who murdered defenceless civilians in Asaba have never been reprimanded in life or in death, neither has Nigerian government acknowledged that its troops massacred its citizens without provocation is a dent on Nigeria’s image.

WetinConsignMe:


And deservedly so. He ordered the worst genocide in Nigerian history AND, by accounts of foreign powers in the know, he was quite corrupt!

This is heart touching. The pictures

One word - IGNORANCE!

When I read some of the posts on this forum and I see nothing but ignorance. Ignorance is bliss! I see a plethora of evidence that many Nigerians do NOT even know anything about the true history of their own country. Somebody was even asking; "What is the Asaba massacre?" And another person asked; "What did the hundreds of boys and men in Asaba do for them to get lined up and murdered by soldiers of the Nigerian Army who were under the command of Murtala Muhammed?" What did they do? Seriously? Have you taken a look at history? Another person is asking for some evidence of the Asaba massacre! Wow! What do you want? You want to dig up the mass graves of the murdered people so you can smell their decayed bones? What evidence exactly will convince you? A video or audio recording?

And this is the biggest reason why Nigeria still remains the same poor, low-life, mediocre, under-producing country that it has been for many decades ever since Independence from colonial Britain. You can see all the glaring evidence of ignorance from many people who post and comment on these boards. Many Nigerians and Nairalanders know more about American artists and Hollywood stars and you know more about your local Nigerian stars and celebrities than you will ever know about the history of your own country. What a SHAME!

And you wonder why Nigeria is in the same condition that it is today, and Nigerians continue to allow mediocre, vision-less and those of average intelligence to govern them and rule over them over and over again? And you wonder why the country does not make progress?

1) Begin by learning the history of your country and take note of the lessons from that history.
2) Take those lesson notes and use them to fix the problems of Nigeria today.
3) Use your vision and creative energy and resources to develop the solutions for today, and plan for tomorrow.
4) Select "only" good leaders. Get rid of all the bad ones - every single one of them "bad ones" gotta go! Punish the corrupt ones.
5) Take the country back from the rogues. That is how you change the country.

People, you need to remember your own history.

Murtala Mohammed is the definition of a beast. A lousy soldier who was soundly beaten and disgraced in practically every battle he fought in Biafra. Only good at ethnic jingoism, genocide of unarmed civilians, Indian hemp and tribalism

Bitchiamjay:
Murtala Mohammed is widely regarded by many as the best head of state that ever ruled Nigeria .

such beautiful and quiet soul was executed by Dimka .


#YOlO

No one escapes natural justice. Both Dimka and Murtala got served. We will be served also. We should all practice the idea of "love your neighbor as yourself" and we will all be fine.

The Butcher of Asaba

haladadon:
This is the only northerner that practised one Nigeria. his projects are still alive till now.

Please name the projects?

jomonic:


No one escapes natural justice. Both Dimka and Murtala got served. We will be served also. We should all practice the idea of "love your neighbor as yourself" and we will all be fine.

Idi Amin escaped. Died quietly in his sleep surrounded by friends and family

The best military head of states we ever had,though unconfirmed reports of his involvement in asaba massacre is having a dent on his records.

striker07:
The best military head of states we ever had,though unconfirmed reports of his involvement in asaba massacre is having a dent on his records.

Involvement my ass, everybody knows he ORDERED the massacre. This is the sort of thing u can't hide 4 too long.
As for best this and that, see below.

EXCLUSIVE: Inside America’s damning verdict on Murtala Muhammed after 1975 coup

For nearly half a century after his stint as Nigeria’s military leader, Murtala Muhammed remained widely regarded as a dogged corruption fighter who took fearless steps against official graft.

But to American diplomats, Mr. Muhammed was a strikingly different figure from the no-nonsense general many Nigerians respected.

They believed he was not only an arrogant mass murderer, but just as corrupt as those he went after.

And, although brilliant and daring, Mr. Muhammed was an erratic and impetuous ethnic chauvinist who lacked the unifying talent of his predecessor, Yakubu Gowon, American diplomats said at the time.

“The leader of the coup against General Yakubu Gowon is an erratic, vainglorious, impetuous, corrupt, vindictive, intelligent, articulate, daring Hausa,” a memorandum sent by then American Ambassador to Nigeria, John Reinhardt, to then United States Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, on August 18, 1975, said.

The memo, amongst several recently declassified U.S. diplomatic cables, painted a sordid picture of a man regarded by many Nigerians as a folk hero of sort, for his seeming relentless war against corruption.

Mr. Reinhardt delivered the damning appraisal on the request of Mr. Kissinger shortly after Mr. Muhammed deposed Mr. Gowon in a coup d’état.

“Brigadier Murtala Muhammed was a prime force in the Nigerian coup of July 1966, which brought Gowon to power, and is one of the two principal plotters against Gowon for the past two years,” Mr. Reinhardt wrote.

“He commanded a division during the Nigerian civil war, was involved in the only documented case of genocide, won one important battle, and thereafter coasted for upwards of two years until Gowon finally removed him from command and placed him in charge of Army signals, a position which he held until last month…coup.”

He was also controversial. During the war against the secessionist Biafra Republic, Mr. Muhammed commanded the army’s second division which was accused of executing over a thousand civilians in Asaba, Delta State, in what is now known as the Asaba Massacre.

The division was also accused of ordering the killing of several Biafran prisoners of war.

mujahid777:
The man has been exonerated fromhis alleged involment in the asaba massacre,but yet the flatiino moorons can't stop replaying the same lies.

how was he exonerated from the asaba massacre that was an embarrassment to gowon sef...whar about the lagos airport executions. Pls go and read you illiterate

vroy:
In August 1967, three months into the Nigerian Civil War, Biafran troops invaded the Midwest 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 bridge, so that the Federal troops were

asaba indufened were civilians you dumb ppl. Why am I wasting time with u see.

haladadon:
This is the only northerner that practised one Nigeria. his projects are still alive till now.

you ppl just type like ediot. Pls show us one legacy of murtala.

striker07:
The best military head of states we ever had,though unconfirmed reports of his involvement in asaba massacre is having a dent on his records.

The Asaba massacre was just one of his many many crimes.

Others included the killing of over 300 Igbos in the counter coup of 1966.

He also ordered the summary execution of Biafran prisoners of war, which is a war crime, and this was arrested to by General Isola Williams and General Akinrinade who both served under him.

vroy:
But sir according to wiki he was not the one that ordered the open fire. 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. 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.

BROS TRY GET SMALL SENSE.SO A JUNIOR OFFICER WOULD ORDER A MASSACRE OF THAT MAGNITUDE THAT HAPPENED FOR DAYS WHILE HIS SUPERIOR OFFICER WHO IS NOT IN SUPPORT WAS SLEEPING BAA? D YOU EVEN PONDER WHAT YOU WRITE?

striker07:
The best military head of states we ever had,though [b]unconfirmed reports [/b]of his involvement in asaba massacre is having a dent on his records.

HIS COMPLICITY IN THE ASABA MASSACRE WAS NEVER IN DOUBT.HE WAS A COLD BLOODED KILLER WHO WAS PAID BACK IN HIS OWN COIN BY DIMKA

PaChukwudi44:

BROS TRY GET SMALL SENSE.SO A JUNIOR OFFICER WOULD ORDER A MASSACRE OF THAT MAGNITUDE THAT HAPPENED FOR DAYS WHILE HIS SUPERIOR OFFICER WHO IS NOT IN SUPPORT WAS SLEEPING BAA? D YOU EVEN PONDER WHAT YOU WRITE?

Excuse me oga no be me write am search am for Wikipedia n see muritala name was not even mentioned

WetinConsignMe:


Idi Amin escaped. Died quietly in his sleep surrounded by friends and family

Natural justice may take place here or hereafter. I am judge to no one. But we all must answer either here on earth or after we have passed. No one really dies my friend.

jomonic:


Natural justice may take place here or hereafter. I am judge to no one. But we all must answer either here on earth or after we have passed. No one really dies my friend.

Yeah? U have no way of knowing if there really is a here, talkless if a hereafter.
Anyway I'm only responding to your statement which implied u were only talking of "here". Suppose MM had a very good life and is still alive? Won't u say that's unjust? Would u be waiting for a hereafter?!

classikbill:
This is a pure definition of excellence, he achieved all this at a very young age. Gone are the days when everything is available for a serious minded Nigerian to excel.. No matter how serious or intelligent you are now, the system keeps on dragging the youth backward. NIGERIA WE HAIL THEE

He was somewhat a fraud. Nepotism played a major rule in his upbringing. When his father died while at the tender age, his uncle made sure the dude got ahead.

vroy:
Excuse me oga no be me write am search am for Wikipedia n see muritala name was not even mentioned

LIAR!!
(Murtala tried to whitewash himself with a fall guy but it didn't work)

This is Wikipedia:

Ibrahim B. Haruna has sometimes been named as the officer who ordered the massacre, following a report of his testimony to the Nigerian Human Rights Violations Investigations Commission, known as the Oputa Panel.[1] This article quoted him as claiming responsibility (as the commanding officer) and having no apology for the atrocity. However, Haruna was not present in Asaba in 1967. He replaced Murtala Muhammed as C.O. of the Second Division in spring 1968. While there are no eye-witness reports of Muhammed ordering the killings, he was the Commander in the field, and thus must bear responsibility.
Pachukwudi44, mujahid777

He died at a young age.