HORROR IN THE MIDWEST
A PRESENTATION OF THE FINDINGS OF S.E OROBATOR
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Compcros
When you are crying because you were hurt in a fight, it is meaningful to see what your opponent also suffered.
When you insist that you alone suffered, you might need to be informed you are not alone in suffering.
When you use your belief that you alone suffer to try to compel people to behave as you want, those other people need to go out of their way to educate you.
Propaganda driven by some Igbos who have not recovered from the defeat of Biafra wants to compel Nigeria into a position of sole or central responsibility for the horrors of the Nigerian Civil War of 1967 -1970.
This effort at compulsion is accompanied by threats of violence, vengeance and prophecies of doom for Nigeria.
One of these efforts at forcing others to behave as these people want is the loud cry that did not commit any war crimes.
Biafra is thus depicted as a saintly enterprise and Nigeria as the absolute villain.
I have made it my business to investigate and bring these war crimes to light.
I am collecting both published documents and eyewitness accounts from various sources.
As I discover them, I will make them available to the public and address any questions and challenges that arise.
All findings will also be posted at the
All findings will be distributed through the following platforms:
1. Various African and Nigerian centred listserves
3. Rethinking Biafra Facebook page
4. The Rethinking Biafra document collection on Scribd
5. The Rethinking Biafra Twitter account
8. My Scribd account
I have already distributed two reports on Biafran war crimes, one from the Oputa Panel of Inquiry and another from an academic paper on rapes in Midwestern Nigeria during the war, the Midwest being a zone invaded by Biafra.
I will respond to any critiques of these documents as soon as I am free.
I present here a moving account on Biafran atrocities in the Midwest, by historian S.E Orobator.
Orobator's essay is attached to this mail and posted at the Rethinking Biafra Scribd account and my Scribd account.
Orobator was in Benin, the capital of the Midwest, at the time of the Biafran invasion, and describes himself as keenly aware of developments during the period . He later conducted research on the invasion and went on to become a professor of history, specializing in international relations.
The essay is "The Biafran Crisis and the Midwest".
Published in African Affairs, Vol. 86, No. 344 (Jul., 1987), pp. 367-383.
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal African Society.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/722748 .
The entire essay on the Biafran misadventure in the Midwest is moving in its analysis of what the Biafrans lost through the invasion in terms of goodwill as well as in creating a situation that united the Midwest with the Federal forces against Biafra in the subsequent events that marked the turning point of the war.
I will present Orobator's summation of the cost of the invasion to Biafra in another mail .
I post below an extract from the essay.
The most relevant sections on Biafran war crimes are highlighted:
The relationship between the two sides deteriorated progressively and the Biafran efforts to secure the people's support failed.
The battle front reports were equally unfavourable to the Biafrans who then resorted to extensive witch-hunting against suspected saboteurs.
The Biafran forces, who were relatively calm during the first one month of the occupationperiod, became progressively edgy, tightening the various governmental gadgets of societal control.
As the Biafran hostility developed to crisis proportions, the dusk to dawn curfew was further enforced, the Vigilance and Security Councils given additional powers, and the Biafran Army and Militia became more ruthless in their dealings with the civilians.
The civilian collaborators doubled their spying activities to callous dimensions. [45]
The situation drifted for the worse.
Taking the MidWestern refusal to support the secessionist movement as a demonstration of an anti-Ibo and pro-Hausa stance, the Biafrans intensified their search for suspected saboteurs as every set-back on the battle front was invariably blamed on sabotage.
Heavier reprisals followed.
At Abudu, over 300 bodies, including those of children, were found in the Ossiomo river as the Biafrans withdrew. [46]
Similarly, on 20 September 1967, 'there was a mass killing of non-Ibo MidWesterners at Boji-Boji Agbor', and on 23 September, 'non-Ibo speaking MidWesterners were apprehended by rebel soldiers at Asaba, Ibusa and Agbor and taken [in two lorries] to a rubber plantation along Uromi-Agbor road and massacred'.[47]
The more minor cases of rape, extortion, seizure of properties, and other punishments featured abundantly.
For instance, a Warri-based lawyer, E. K. Iseru, testified at the Tribunal that he was stripped naked and detained for three days without food for agitating for the Rivers State, and, when he complained of hunger, he was promptly told: 'there is no food for Hausa friends'. [48]
45. Author's personal file. Also see Press Release No. MW 215 of 1/2/68, p. 5.
46. This disclosure was made at the Tribunal[ Rebel Activities Tribunal of Inquiry (Ministry of Information, Benin City)] by Chief D. N. Oronsaye, formerly Principal of the Provincial Teacher Training College, Abudu. See also Press Release No. MW 157 24/1 /68, p. 4.
47. Press Release No. MW 410 23/2/68, pp. 6-7.
48. Press Release No. MW 157 of 24/1/68, pp. 2-3.
Saturday, 27 October 2012 22: 30
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