Asaba Massacre Memorial Monument

The Asaba Massacre occurred in early October 1967 during the Biafran war fought over the secession of Biafra. Biafra identified as the predominantly Igbo, former Eastern Region of Nigeria. Asaba ( Igbo: Ahaba ) has an interesting ancestral lineage with its origin linked to Ugboma, Ezeanyanwu, Nnebisi, and also Igala in Kogi State. Though linguistically and ethnically Ibo, Asaba was never part of biafran territory.

On the 4/5th Oct 1967, the Federal Troops of the second division of the Nigerian Army entered Asaba en route to Biafra. In the next days that followed, a massacre of the male population occurred at Ogbeosowa Square in Asaba. The Asaba people, wishing to show allegiance to the Federal Troops, had come out to welcome them with the hope of assisting a reduction of tension in the town. The Federal Troops separated the women from the men and coldly assassinated the men and buried them in shallow mass graves around Ogbeosowa village. In the ensuing days, various killings were orchestrated in various areas in the town.
It is estimated that over 1000 men were killed. The killings had every aspect of a premeditated attempt at the extermination of the male population.

The father of Mariam Babangida, a younger brother of Chief Philip Asiodu who was an
Olympic athlete at the time and various prominent citizens of Asaba were also amongst those killed.
Till today no proper explanation of this event has been provided by the Federal Government neither has any official apology been offered for this humanitarian crime.

It remains the only massacre in the world of this magnitude to be treated with silence and impunity. Asaba people have continued to cry out for an explanation for what happened to their people and continue fittingly to remember them and to remind the country about the value of upholding the principle that all (Nigerian) lives matter.

And so we do this to preserve their voices, the voices of the many sentenced to their untimely death and forgotten by our indifference and silence. This new cenotaph is a belated attempt to salvage meaning out of a meaningless tragedy. We must teach our country that there may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. Freedom, liberty, and justice is not an instantaneous holiday. It is a road. A long road. We know this now. In this unspeakable tragedy, we learned painfully how quickly man sheds culture and a monster emerges. The beast is revealed. But despite this, Asaba community has decided to stand firmly on love, as hate is too heavy a burden to bear. Whoever was responsible and for whatever reason, these were innocent victims who are worthy of our recollection, at least for one single day each year. This monument is therefore dedicated in honour and remembrance of a loss so grave and sad that time cannot diminish. Please contemplate their passing in respectful silence”.

As the Asagba of Asaba stated at the occasion of the presentation of this new cenotaph, “the social and economic consequences from this loss suffered by Asaba community and indeed Nigeria from the deaths of the cream of Asaba society on Oct 1967 is yet
to be fully assessed or determined”.

Asaba people will continue to hope till hope creates from its own wreck, the thing it contemplates.

Chuck Nduka-Eze,
The Isama Ajie of Asaba,
Chairman Asaba Massacre Memorial
Anniversary Committee 2020.