Paul Ejime
20 December 1999
Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) — Nigeria's Igbo ethnic group is demanding compensation of eight trillion naira (more than 8 billion US dollars) from the federal government for alleged injustices and atrocities suffered by the people since 1966.
The demand is contained in a strongly worded petition to the Justice Oputa panel on violation of human rights in Nigeria since the first military coup in January 1966.
The petition was submitted by the Oha-na-Eze Ndi Igbo, the umbrella organisation for the Igbos, who led an unsuccessful bid to secede from the federation in 1967, over allegations of genocide targeted at people from the region.
After the 30-month civil war, the Igbos led by the self-proclaimed "Republic of Biafra" leader, Col. Emeka Ojukwu, capitulated to the federal army, with Ojukwu fleeing to Cote, d'ivoire.
Political historians put the human losses to the Igbos during the civil war, that ened in January 1970, at between one million and two million dead, in addition to the destruction of public and private property in the oil-rich region.
Despite the federal authorities' "no-victor-no-vanquished" public pledge and the liberal reconciliation, reconstruction and rehabilitation policy of the Gen. Yakubu Gowon administration, which prosecuted the war to keep Nigeria one, the average Igbos still feel alienated from the mainstream of Nigerian polity.
The Igbos believe they are being punished for trying to secede.
"An early attention to the reparation and appropriate restitution which we demand in compensation for these atrocities will serve the best interests of Nigeria," Oha-na-Eze said in the nine-page petition released to the press.
The group alleged that more than 600,000 unarmed civilians were killed, another 50,000 maimed, while 50,000 Igbo women were allegedly raped by federal troops during the civil war.
It urged President Olusegun Obasanjo's government to redress alleged imbalance in political appointments against the Igbos.
Another Igbo group, Justice and Peace Guard, is also making a similar demand.
Asking for 50 billion dollars, this group is demanding that "the whole property belonging to Biafran citizens seized nation-wide as abandoned property should be returned immediately in line with UN Articles 17(2), which specify right of property."
It urged a massive injection of federal funds to rebuild the south-east which the group claimed had been neglected since the civil war.
The Oputa panel, a largely advisory body, is being seen as Nigerian version of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up to redress the injustice of the apartheid era.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 1999 Panafrican News Agency. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
