COMMITTEE ON GENOCIDE.

EKWE NCHE.

pages 20 -29

'we have dealt with Okpara's brothers and sisters'. They took us to the

Railway Station in an Army landrover, and there we saw a sight which I would

never like to see again to my dying day. Over 700 men, women and children

had been mowed down - they had been killed while they were waiting for a

train to take them to our Region. A few of the children were still creeping

over their dead mothers, shouting, 'Mama, I am hungry; I want to drink'.

Some were trying to suck their dead mothers' breasts! I left them to suck on!

"It should be borne in mind that three days before this unprecedented

massacre, it was announced over Kano Rediffusion Network that a passenger

train would be leaving Kano for Eastern Region on 2nd October, and that all

those wishing to travel should report on 1st of October, at the Railway

Station. Over 700 Ibos packed to the Railway Station. This announcement was

caused to be made by one Mr. T. George, the Senior Train Officer, who

incidentally is a native of Idoma (Northern Nigeria). He was educated at the

Methodist College, Uzuakoli (Biafra). He was a member of Nasara Club, and

attended all the meetings where it was decided to kill all the Ibos in Kano.

"They drove us to the Loco running shed: it was the same sad story of murder.

All the Ibo workers who had reported for duty wore killed. Next, we were

taken round the Sabon Gari. It was the same massacre of Ibos in Hotels where

they had gone to relax because it was a public holiday. All the hotels were

literally filled up with dead bodies. In Sabon Gari, everywhere we went, we

saw dead and dying Ibos. No tinge of compunction ever touched the conscience

of these soldiers who on the night of October 1st joined their civilian

Northern brothers to loot, pillage, and kill our kith and kin. After we had

seen enough, they took us back to the airport where they continued killing

those who were suspected of being Ibos. A further £10 from us reassured us

that we were not in any immediate danger although one of the soldiers had

doubted my identity in particular. He took me aside and asked me in honesty

if I was really a Ghanaian, and I assured him I was, but I gave him £5 more in

to the bargain. I asked him to take me round to see more of Okpara's dead

brothers, because

Page 20 Contd.../

the sight intrigued me. My motive for asking this was far from being

disinterested. On the contrary, I mainly wanted him to take me round to see

if I could stumble upon the dead bodies of my wife, my brother and my boy

whom I had not seen since we were separated. My fears were soon confirmed.

I saw the dead bodies of my brother and my boy near where I was supposedly

killed ... On the 4th of October the soldiers informed us that they could no

longer guarantee our safety. At this time there were still isolated cases of

shooting and beating up of people suspected of being Ibos. We went back to

Sabon Gari, but the Yorubas we met refused to give me protection ... I tried

one or two European friends I knew but each of them swore they would rather

die than give me protection since they were warned previously not to give any

Ibo man or woman any protection ... "

Finally, the monstrous atrocities which accompanied the gruesome massacres of

1966 bore testimony to the fact that the perpetrators were religiously intent

on genocide. There were numerous cases of torture and humiliation, maiming

and mutilation, gouging out of the eyes and tearing out of the womb,

slaughter and decapitation - atrocities which can only be explained by the

determination of the perpetrators to destroy Biafrans in every conceivable

way. A witness, Dick Iwobi, described to the Atrocities Tribunal an

outrageous method of murder which Northern Nigerians practised on Biafrans:

"This punishment is one of the most dreadful ways of crucifying a person. A

heavy rod is tied across the back of the chest of the victim with his hands

stretched and secured firmly on the rod. While the victim may still be

standing on his legs, he is as helpless as a man nailed to a cross. In this

position they then proceeded to torture the victim by plucking his eyes,

cutting his tongue or cutting his testicles ... "

Another witness, O. S. I. Udeng, saw another ghastly manner of killing at

Makurdi:

"On the 31st August, 1966, Easterners who ran from Zakibiam to Ugba were all

killed and thrown into Bukuru river ... The 5O Easterners (who were hiding in

the pastor's house) were ordered out by Isaac Kpum to

Page 21 Contd.../

the slaughter ground. These men were buried alive in two deep wells. Each

well was given a gun shot before actually closed up with stones and sand.

Yet another witness Daniel Agu, narrated his own harrowing blood-curdling

experience at Mada:

"On 2/10/66 we were in Mada Railway Station where we-saw four Northern

soldiers, one of whom was called Mai Karfi (i.e. the powerful man): another

one was called Mai Yanka (i.e. the great slaughterer) but I did not know the

names of the other two soldiers. Mai Yanka asked one Ibo man who was boiler

attendant in the Railway Station there why he locked the pipe. He said that

he locked it because there was no train coming. Then Mai Yanka told him to

shut up his foolish mouth. After saying this he and the other three soldiers

called all of us to come and see how they would kill our brother Ibo man like

a goat. Really, we were all forced to come and witness it. In a minute the

man was gripped by them all and then Mai Yanka took out his two-edged sword

and cut his head like a goat, as he said: at which the man's blood spread all

over our bodies like water spurting from a tap ... we were all both horrified

and gripped by fear."

Bestialities and indignities of all kinds were visited on Biafrans in 1966.

In Ikeja Barracks (Western Nigeria) Biafrans were forcibly fed on a mixture

of human urine and faeces. In Northern Nigeria numerous Biafran house-wives

and nursing mothers were raped before their husbands and children. Young

girls were abducted from their homes, work-places and schools and forced into

sexual intercourse with sick, demented and leprous men. As one witness, Erif

Spiff, told the Atrocities Tribunal:

"Many (Biafran) girls in the training school in Kano were collected and taken

to the leper colony to live with the lepers".

Even female nurses in General Hospitals in Northern Nigeria were so ridiculed

and humiliated by their patients and colleagues alike that some returned to

Biafra mentally disturbed.

Page 22 Contd.../

Bearing all this in mind, one should not be amazed that, in spite of their

strenuous efforts, Biafrans failed to procure a peaceful settlement with

Nigerians of the Crisis of 1966. As a matter of fact, for long after the

massacres of that year, the feeling was current in Nigeria that Biafrans had

not yet been sufficiently reduced both in number and in high-level manpower.

It was an open secret that many Nigerian Army Officers and men were urging on

their leaders that the two million Biafran survivors of the pogrom, rejected

and dejected people who had abandoned all their possessions and taken refuge

in their homeland, should be pursued thither and once for all destroyed along

with their home-keeping kinsmen.

The War of Aggression and Genocide Against the Republic of Biafra Commenced

6th July, 1967

(a) In July 1966, after the Supreme Commander, Major-General Aguiyi

Ironsi's death, army personnel of Northern Nigerian origin hunted for every

notable Ibo man in Lagos. They abducted them at nights and drove them to

unknown destinations where they were tortured to death. All these reflect

the genocidal intentions of Nigerians. The Law Courts set up under the

constitution to protect the lives and property of individuals were helpless.

Up till now nobody has punished the perpetrators of these atrocities, and the

only sane conclusion is that they were in consonance with the 7-point

programme of the organisers of the 1966 pogrom. What motivated Northern

Nigerians to these acts of genocide were nothing other than inveterate malice

and hatred for the Ibo man whose industry and dynamism are the envy of the

rest of the federation. While these atrocities were being committed against

the then Easterners, they were never given a chance to defend themselves.

They were disarmed, herded into airports, railway station, ostensibly to be

taken home. There they were set upon and massacred according to plan. All

manner of weapons were used; machine guns and rifles, bayonets and matchets,

spears and poisoned arrows. Some were burnt or buried alive. Some had their

throats cut in the presence of their families, pregnant women had their wombs

ripped open. Women of all ages were ravished before their husbands and

fathers. Pictures are available both from foreign and local press showing

varying degrees of

Page 23 Contd.../

injuries suffered by those victims. Some had their eyes pulled from their

sockets and mouths slashed from end to end. Private parts of people were cut

off or ripped into shreds. The catalogue is endless. Properties and

investments worth over thirty million pounds owned by the then Easterners -

hotels, churches, schools, shops, buildings were damaged or set fire to after

looting. The Yorubas of Western Nigeria were not silent in all these

genocidal exercises. They aided and abetted the Northerners at every stage

of the Pogrom, believing that once the Ibos were eliminated they and the

Northerners will dominate the federation to the exclusion of the Easterners.

(b) The Biafrans reacting in self defence and preservation of their lives

and property decided to declare their Sovereignty on the 30th of May, 1967.

The pill was too bitter for the Nigerians to swallow, and they openly

declared war on the young Republic on July 6th, 1967. Since the shooting war

broke out the Nigerians have sought to complete their genocidal intentions.

Even their war song, which is always played at the beginning and at the end

of their news items, exposes their mission to Biafra. The daily broadcast of

this song shows that the Nigerians have not and do not intend to abandon

their intention of genocide. Because of their superiority in number and

armament, having been openly supported by Britain, Russia, Egypt and Sudan,

the Nigerians have succeeded in occupying a large area of Biafran territory.

Reports from behind the enemy lines confirm the plan and indiscriminate

massacre of the civilian population, of wanton destruction of towns and

villages, farms and properties of the people. Conventions on warfare are

thrown overboard. The blood-thirsty Nigerian Army break doors of houses,

smash up furniture and loot as much as they can. Children abandoned by their

parents in their exodus are massacred. Aged women and pregnant women are

knocked down, if they are lucky not to be killed just for begging for pardon

for their children. Girls of tender age in their escape from the vandals for

safety are violently caught, raped and mutilated. Foreign visitors to Biafra

who come to investigate, know that every village in Biafra overrun by the

vandals is a scene of numerous corpses, villages and farms lying waste.

Page 24 Contd.../

non-military targets is well illustrated by the following records which are

intercepts of coded messages from enemy Communications revealing that the

instructions to bomb civilian targets are official:

1. "CO/CALABAR)/CA: ABAR AIR FORCE BASE. CO

(CALABAR) - You go straight to Arochuku, do not

allow anything to stand.

CALABAR AIR FORCE BASE - Roger (All right) Sir

- Received 13.50 hours 30/5/68.

2. "NIGERIAN CO AT CALABAR (From)

CALABAR AIR FORCE BASE (To)

CALABAR CO - Bombing should be done on the

fishing port area and all the

areas of Ikot-Ifiat and Ikot Offiong.

CALABAR AIR BASE - Roger (All right) Sir.

Received 11.05 hours 23/3/68.

3. From: Lt.Col. Adekunle (PH)

To: NAF COMMANDER (Calabar)

NAF (CALABAR) - We will only do one mission because

the bombs are not enough. Which is

the important one?

Lt.Col. Adekunle (PH) - Go to AZUMINI and ABA:

Bomb the bastard civilians like mad.

Received 10.30 hours 18/6/68

4. NAF (PH)/NAF CALABAR

NAF/(PH): What is the weather like?

NAF (CAL.) - Fair, Sir.

NAF (PH): O.K. go and bomb Azumini and Akwete

and follow it up till the river

NAF/(CAL) - O.K. Sir. TIGER - FIGHTER BOMBER.

NAF (PH): When you come back, the tiger should

go to Aba area.

NAF (CAL): What targets Sir

NAF (PH): The town itself. Chase them like mad.

They should run away.

Received 09.08 hrs. 18/6/68

5. LT.COL. ADEKUNLE/NAF CALABAR COMD.

Lt.Col. Adekunle: Go to Aba and Owerri and throw

the remaining bombs to cause confusion.

Received 11.27 hours 25/6/68.

Page 25 Contd.../

6. LT.COL. ADEKUNLE/NAF CALABAR COMD.

Lt. Col. Adekunle: Get PH area map not areas OKUNBUA,

IGRITA AND ALLUA, 3 miles, 1 mile

radius, all that area anything you

see there, leave no living thing there.

Received 10.01 hours 25/6/68.

7. OPERATOR NAF DET. CALABAR - reporting today's bombing

activities on relay from

Calabar Sunray (CO) to

Overall Sunray (CO) at Lagos.

Calabar: Power station destroyed with two bombs.

Lagos: Roger (All right), go ahead.

Calabar: Heavy on activities at Aba/PH Rd. saw those

in uniform and bombed with eight bombs.

Lagos: Roger, what of IHIALA AND ULI?

Calabar: Pilot says Owerri town was bombed. Discovered

that after the bombing villagers were gathering.

Bombed village. Was to go back this morning

but unable to go due to bad weather at Owerri end.

Lagos: Roger, go back there tomorrow.

Calabar: Roger, nothing more.

Lagos: Roger, out.

Received 13.52 hours 25/6/68.

(d) Conduct of Land warfare

The Nigerian soldiers in strict obedience to their criminal intentions follow

their instructions to the letter. The following shocking reports of their

actual operation in Biafra will leave no one in doubt as to their intention

or their commission of genocide:

i. ABA 2,000 MASSACRED

Lying between the Imo River and Aba are two Biafran villages of Owazza and

Ozuaka and refugees from these villages have reported that when the Nigerian

troops invaded there on Friday the 16th of August, they killed more than

2,000 Biafrans. Susan Masid of the French Press Agency reporting this

horrifying incident had this to say "Young Ibos with terrifying eyes and

trembling lips told journalists in Aba that in the villages Nigerian troops

came from behind, shooting and firing everywhere, shooting everybody who was

running, firing into the houses". And this story was confirmed not only by

the Nigerian troops captured but by Irish Priest Professor Heery.

Page 26 Contd.../

It was in this area that the Commander of the Federal Troops boasted that he

would kill every moving object.

The atrocities spread like bush fire and at a refugee camp set up there, three

hundred and seventy-four (374) people were counted killed. In one village at

Asa - one Mr. Joseph Akwara an ex-railway Mechanic pensioner from Lagos was

captured together with the whole family. His wife and two other children

were killed as they tried to run into the bush for safety. The only

surviving son MICHAEL with tears running down his cheeks gave a chilly

account of how his family was wiped out by the vandals.

A foreign journalist, McArthy William who visited the devastated area of Aba

said he saw the Federal Army move in. This eye witness account says "The

villages were strewn with the corpses of the peasants caught unawares. The

smashed bodies of children, cast aside like broken dolls, lay in the rain

ditches running along-side the main street. The women, old and young, lay

huddled and dead among the wreckages, some with their hands tied behind their

backs." Those experts in atrocities make no distinction and innocent

children and women were their target victims.

Thus Susan Garth, moved by what she saw in Biafra, remarked: "We are all

guilty of murder of a million children in Biafra".

In Ogwe the newsweek correspondent describes how a Nigerian Lt. Lamurde

treated a poor and lonely boy who went in search for his parents in Ogwe in

Aba. This unfortunate victim of genocide had his hands tied to his legs.

The boy pleaded. "I am not a soldier, Sweet Jesus, save me". This didn't

and his men dragged this innocent boy's corpse across the road and heaved it

into the bushes. I attach as appendices sworn affidavits from Robert Wele of

Owazza and Mark Osondu Eke, eye witness to the massacres on the two villages

above.

After the bombing of Aba on the 25th April, 1968, William Norris writing in

the Sunday Times (London) of April 26th, page 12, under the caption

"Nightmare in Biafra" had this to say: "I have seen things in Biafra this

week which no man should have to see.

Page 27 Contd.../

Sights to search the heart and sicken the conscience I have seen children

roasted alive, young girls torn in two by shrapnel, pregnant women

eviscerated, and old men blown to fragments, I have seen these things and I

have seen their cause: high-flying Russian Ilyushin jets operated by Federal

Nigeria, dropping their bombs on civilian centres throughout Biafra ... "

ii. ONITSHA 300-STRONG CONGREGATION OF APOSTOLIC CHURCH EXTERMINATED

At Onitsha - the 300 strong congregation of the Apostolic Church decided to

stay on while others fled and to pray for deliverance. Col, Mohammed's

Second Division found them in the church, dragged them out, tied their hands

behind their backs and executed them."

This Onitsha massacre was also reported by another foreign journalist,

William Norris, in "The Times" of London of Thursday, April 25, 1968. He

wrote: "There is ... a young English doctor, Dr. Jan Hyde and his wife who

worked in a hospital near Onitsha until they were forced to leave when the

Federal troops moved in. The Hydes tell a horrifying story of the Apostolic

Church near their home, where the congregation decided to stay and pray for

deliverance instead of fleeing before Federal advance ... " Prominent among

the victims was one Alabingo of Zik's Spokesman Press Onitsha. I attach an

affidavit from Frank Chukwuma Ibegba, an eye-witness of the Onitsha

atrocities.

iii. CALABAR

Rev. David T. Craig, writing in the Presbyterian Record of December 1967

(Scotland) gave a more convincing account of Nigerian vandalism and acts of

genocide, under the caption of "Operation Calabar". He wrote inter alia ...

"It was then that I saw one of the horrors of this war. A group of Efik

people (the local inhabitants) brought two young men in civilian dress to the

soldiers. The young lads looked like secondary school students. With the

Northern soldiers was an Efik speaking soldier. It was his duty to question

prisoners in the Efik language. His job was to see if any spoke Efik with an

Ibo accent. These two young lads did. The soldiers took aim and they were

shot on the spot. I made my way back to the house.

Page 28 Contd.../

In October 1967 the invading Nigerian Army shelled Calabar General Hospital

for many hours. Several patients were killed in the process according to the

eye witness accounts by Miss A. E. Akpan and Mr. L. E. Udofia, both of the

hospital staff. In October 1967, a ship load of Calabar children was taken

to Lagos and camped in Suru Lere - Parents and Guardians cannot now tell

whether their children are dead, missing or kidnapped. About 250 are

involved.

iv. UYO 400 KILLED

The Nigerian vandals having shelled Uyo particularly the villages of Ifiayang,

Nwaniba, Ikot Offiong, Itu, Mbak Ndiya, Etinam and Itam for three consecutive

days claimed hundreds of civilian lives. Then they embarked on a systematic

elimination of leaders of thought and their families. 400 are reported so

far killed. These people were lined up and shot, supervised by Col. Garuba,

a Northern Nigerian soldier of Genocide. Prominent among those killed are:

1. Mr. E. A. Obot - retired Administrative Officer.

2. Mr. A. A. Obot - Principal Lutheran High School, member

Eastern Nigeria Legislature, member

Provincial Executive Committee, member

Consultative Assembly.

3. Mrs. A. A. Obot - a housewife.

4. All of Mr. and Mrs. Obot's five children - innocent kids.

5. Mr. Obot's two brothers-in-law.

6. The entire Obot family.

7. H.U. Akpabil - Former Eastern Nigeria Minister of State;

Proprietor Iman Secondary School, First

Commissioner for Uyo Province.

8. Chief J. B. Umana - Information Officer in the Biafran

Ministry of Information, Former

Information Attache to the Agent

General in U.K.

9. Prince D. J. Umonclak - Proprietor, Nsit People's

Grammar School, Printer, Former

Member Nigerian Parliament.

10. Chief Elijah A. Okon - General Manager of AMEZ Schools

in Biafra; member Consultative Assembly

and Provincial Executive Member.

The Nigerians themselves admitted these incidents but claim that they were

perpetrated by Biafrans. See Nigerian Papers to Addis Ababa Conference.

Page 29 Contd.../

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COMMITTEE ON GENOCIDE.

EKWE NCHE Organization.