ATROCITIES PERPETRATED AGAINST THE IBIBIO DURING THE BIAFRAN WAR:

WRITTEN BY RAY ISONG;-

The Nigerian-Biafran War started on July 6, 1967 and ended on January 15, 1970. The former Eastern Region of Nigeria seceded from Nigeria and declared its independence on May 30, 1967, following the massacre of the Igbo people who were living in the northern parts of Nigeria.

The dominant argument in the historiography of the civil War, both within academia and the popular media, is that the Igbo were targeted for extermination by the Muslim north. Yet, not much has been reported about the atrocities perpetrated against the “minorities” in Biafra, both by the Nigerian military forces and the Biafran militias. In particular, the ibibio people.

William Norris of the London Times who visited Biafra, reported an eye- witness account in which some men of Ibibio ethnic origin were beaten to death at Umuahia on April 2, 1968. These Ibibios who included old men and young men were apparently suspected of collaborating with advancing Nigerian troops. They were reportedly frog-marched across an open space while the local people attacked them with sticks and clubs.

In a related account, B. J. Ikpeme, a member of a minority group and retired Senior Medical Officer in the then Eastern Region revealed atrocities perpetrated by Biafran soldiers against the minorities in some towns in the present-day Cross River and Akwa- Ibom States. Ikpeme argued that Ojukwu’s declaration of the Republic of Biafra had been issued against the wishes of the majority of the people of Calabar, Ogoja, and Rivers Provinces, who for many years had agitated for a separate state of their own.

According to Ikpeme, the Igbo leadership, who did not like the minority agitation, decided either to force the five million non-Igbo minorities into the new republic or eliminate them. It was on this basis, claims Ikpeme, that Biafran soldiers were quickly sent to the minority areas to “keep down the people, detain or even kill all who dared raise a voice in protest against the idea of Biafra.” It was during this period that the non-Igbos started experiencing different forms of inhumane treatment, ranging from torture, detention, to killing.

Ikpeme himself was detained in what he described as a “concentration camp” and was later transferred to a prison cell where he was given urine to drink when he demanded water. Ikpeme described instances where the Biafra soldiers allegedly perpetrated atrocities against some members of non-Igbo groups. In Asang town in Enyong, from where Ikpeme originated, about four hundred people were carried away to an unknown destination. Another town called Attan Onoyon in the same Enyong was burnt down with many people killed by the Biafran soldiers.

In Ikot Ekpenyong in the present day Akwa Ibom State, Biafra soldiers were said to have shot many villagers. Ikpeme also recounted that similar killings carried out by Biafra soldiers took place in places like Ikot Okpot and Idoro. He equally alleged that when the Nigerian troops landed in Calabar on October 18, 1967, about 169 civilians in detention were lined up and shöt by Biafran soldiers. This same allegation had also been published in The New York Times as an informational advertisement by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in New York. These two accounts, given by the survivor-victim of Ikun and Dr. Ikpeme, portray similar pictures of gross atrocities but with different underlying objectives.

Viòlencé towards the minorities was not perpetrated only by the Biafran troops. Approximately 2,000 Efiks were reportedly killèd in Calabar by the federal troops. The victims were said to be returnees who revolted against the federal occupation. The killing was reported to Gowon who subsequently appointed Dr. J. B. Ikpeme as Chief Justice when the killing had nearly been completed. According to Emeka Uhuegbu, the field administrator of the United Nations mandated demining project, the minority areas of Rivers State had the highest number of landmine victims. Akwa Ibom and Imo States follow on the list.

According to a study on Nkari, an ibibio clan bordering Akwa Ibom and Abia State, in Ini LGA, the Nigerian Civil War military operation did not reach Nkari villages until late 1968. Before this period, the Nkari people only felt the effects of the war. Essential food such as salt, crayfish, sugar, bread and so on were lacking leading to starvation in the area. There was no army occupation of the Nkari clan during the early period of the war in 1967, the people only heard from news on the radio that there was a civil war going on in the country, later they experienced scarcity of goods and drugs in the market.

In late 1968, Nkari people started seeing soldiers in the community. The people, mostly men were asked to queue up for the exchange of currency, from Naira to Biafran pounds, and all men of the clan who queued up for the exercise were marched out of the community to an unknown destination.

(Inwang:2018) also added that some of the men in the queue who later escaped while they were led by the men dressed in military uniform wondered why only men were mandated and taken out of the community to exchange Nigerian currency for the Biâfrâ money. Therefore, some people escaped into the bush whenever they were out of sight of the soldiers.

Women waited for days, weeks and months and their husbands did not return. Therefore, they fled from the community leaving the entire area desolate. The study found out that they were Biâfrân soldiers hired by neighboring Igbo villages to carry out the nefarious and dastardly act, so as to evict the people from their land. Till date, Nkari people are still in land disputes with neighboring Igbo villages – Ariam/Usaka, Ntalakwu, Ibere.

Source: The Forgotten Victims: Ethnic Minorities in the Nigeria-Biâfrâ War, 1967-1970
Arua Oko Omaka; Nkari and Her Neighbours (1900 - 2000)

Why this now

Point of correction. Naira was not in existence in 1968, but Nigerian Pound.

limeta:
Why this now

Just to bring to your attention the atrocities of the past and why the word "SE/SS" is an aberration.

Is04970:

Just to bring to your attention the atrocities of the past and why the word "SE/SS" is an aberration.

This is how you guys will keep spreading hate from generation to generation, later people that are innocent will be the ones to bear the brunt of ojuku. Continue.

OKOATA:
This is how you guys will keep spreading hate from generation to generation, later people that are innocent will be the ones to bear the brunt of ojuku. Continue.

history is important.
Anyways, long live Biafra

We already know their aims so it will not work .
Dear yoruba Muslim,try another trick.

Is04970:

Just to bring to your attention the atrocities of the past and why the word "SE/SS" is an aberration.

hmm.
Truth is, an average SS doesn't really like the SE after the Biafran war, this is the reason the people of SS refused to give back the igbos their properties.
Most igbos will insult the SS cos they don't want to buy into the SS/SE project but history is always taught to make some people look like victims.
The igbos were told that the government killed 3million igbos. While in the SS, we were told that the Biafran soldiers forcefully took our men to war, raped our women.
My grandfather was also a victim, no one knows where he died, no one saw his corpse.
Now how do you expect me and other victims with that kind of knowledge to accept the SS/SE. Just as they can't accept the Hausa's, we can't accept the igbos

A hopeless Nation

richmond500:
hmm.
Truth is, an average SS doesn't really like the SE after the Biafran war, this is the reason the people of SS refused to give back the igbos their properties.
Most igbos will insult the SS cos they don't want to buy into the SS/SE project but history is always taught to make some people look like victims.
The igbos were told that the government killed 3million igbos. While in the SS, we were told that the Biafran soldiers forcefully took our men to war, raped our women.
My grandfather was also a victim, no one knows where he died, no one saw his corpse.
Now how do you expect me and other victims with that kind of knowledge to accept the SS/SE. Just as they can't accept the Hausa's, we can't accept the igbos

Talking of point ... rubbish

Ofodirinwa:


history is important.
Anyways, long live Biafra

BIAFRA OR DEATH

Revisionist propaganda.

We know where this is coming from and the aim.

Biafra is already dead, no sane person in the SS will support biafra. Especially, we in Akwa Ibom.

Martinsmine:



BIAFRA OR DEATH

My uncle tells me how people were forcefully recruited. How it was, either you joined or you're dead

richmond500:
hmm.
Truth is, an average SS doesn't really like the SE after the Biafran war, this is the reason the people of SS refused to give back the igbos their properties.
Most igbos will insult the SS cos they don't want to buy into the SS/SE project but history is always taught to make some people look like victims.
The igbos were told that the government killed 3million igbos. While in the SS, we were told that the Biafran soldiers forcefully took our men to war, raped our women.
My grandfather was also a victim, no one knows where he died, no one saw his corpse.
Now how do you expect me and other victims with that kind of knowledge to accept the SS/SE. Just as they can't accept the Hausa's, we can't accept the igbos

Truth is, when we try to say this,they tell us we are imposters, that we are Yoruba masquerading as Southerners

Martinsmine:

Talking of point ... rubbish

you need to understand the meaning of off-point before talking thrash

richmond500:
hmm.
Truth is, an average SS doesn't really like the SE after the Biafran war, this is the reason the people of SS refused to give back the igbos their properties.
Most igbos will insult the SS cos they don't want to buy into the SS/SE project but history is always taught to make some people look like victims.
The igbos were told that the government killed 3million igbos. While in the SS, we were told that the Biafran soldiers forcefully took our men to war, raped our women.
My grandfather was also a victim, no one knows where he died, no one saw his corpse.
Now how do you expect me and other victims with that kind of knowledge to accept the SS/SE. Just as they can't accept the Hausa's, we can't accept the igbos

While you are gushing this rubbish, my uncle married from uyo and my cousin also married from uyo. An uyo man, a one time commissioner also married one of my aunts. I am ibo.

OP, don't you think Gen Efiong who was in direct control of the Biafran military forces as the chief of defence staff, should be the best person to answer for all these allegations?

You mustn't also forget Mr. NU Akpan who was the secretary to the Biafran government, whose signature must have accompanied any major orders coming from Ojukwu.

Also bear in mind both individuals are from AkwaIbom

OfoIgbo:
OP, don't you think Gen Efiong who was in direct control of the Biafran military forces as the chief of defence staff, should be the best person to answer for all these allegations?

You mustn't also forget Mr. NU Akpan who was the secretary to the Biafran government, whose signature must have accompanied any major orders coming from Ojukwu.

Also bear in mind both individuals are from AkwaIbom

Same thing, the axe claimed to also be like the Trees, but it was used as a tool to dicimate the forest... Effiong was an axe, an own goal...

That's why no one celebrates him here in Akwa Ibom

Is04970:

Just to bring to your attention the atrocities of the past and why the word "SE/SS" is an aberration.

the only part where they said nigerian army muderer 2000 efiks Did you not see that part ? Or you just trying too hard to be stupid

Do a survey, go to Ibom plaza or any Akwa ibom area an ask, no one wants to be associated with Biafra, it's either everyone goes his individual way, or we all sufffer in Nigeria, but to be Biafrans, Abasi Akan utoh idiok mkpo ado

Why create a problem where there is none?

limeta:
Why this now

Cuz they are afraid of the union between the Southeast and Southsouth.

They desperately want to break it. That’s why they are concocting stories that would cuz division rather than look for things that would promote unity.

But will they succeed? Time will tell.

In late 1968, Nkari people started seeing soldiers in the community. The people, mostly men were asked to queue up for the exchange of currency, from Naira to Biafran pounds, and all men of the clan who queued up for the exercise were marched out of the community to an unknown destination.

in 1968
Dey play

Yorubas always crying on igbo matters

hardbody:


While you are gushing this rubbish, my uncle married from uyo and my cousin also married from uyo. An uyo man, a one time commissioner also married one of my aunts. I am ibo.

did I tell you they don't intermarry?
Haven't you seen or heard of Igbos marrying Fulani Muslims?

Next time try read and understand before commenting

Victim mentality is a powerful tool used by some people. Just like black Americans crying about systematic discrimination and racism. But are still the richest set of black people amongst all the descendants of slaves in the Americas. Shebi na people dey haiti, brazil, Jamaica and others dey suffer . The minorities suffered during the mid west invasion, also in the south south many were evicted from their lands and sent to Umuahia where dey starved to death too. Victim mentality wont take anyone anywhere

The narrative is wrong, every grown male child was recruited into the army in all biafran land, it wasn't sectional. In a time of war, every male child that is grown will be forced into the army, even in the Ukraine. once there is a shortage of soldiers, nobody is left behind.

mycar:
The narrative is wrong, every grown male child was recruited into the army in all biafran land, it wasn't sectional. In a time of war, every male child that is grown will be forced into the army, even in the Ukraine. once there is a shortage of soldiers, nobody is left behind.

Fool. Did they tell you they were biafrans and in biafran land?

Zooposki:


Fool. Did they tell you they were biafrans and in biafran land?

You are a fat id*ot.
what makes one a biafran or Nigeria, even a human being. I know if you had your way, you would have denounced being a human because there is no difference between you and a wild duck