Onitsha — Days after Igbos, and indeed many Nigerians, continue to lament and condemn the unfortunate killings at the popular Nkpor Junction in Idemili North Local Government Area, near the commercial city of Onitsha in Anambra State on Monday, May 30, 2016 during the remembrance day of Biafran heroes and heroines who died during the 1967 civil war. It has, however, emerged that this was the second of a major blood spill at Nkpor Junction which is an intersection of roads linking Onitsha, Obosi, Umuoji, Ogidi and the expressway leading to Awka and Enugu.
The first blood spill occurred at the same spot in 1983 during the Second Republic second term presidential campaign of the then President Shehu Shagari. Supporters of the late Biafran warlord, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu who joined the ruling National Party of Nigeria, NPN, soon after returning from exile had clashed with those of the then Governor of old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo of the Nigeria Peoples Party, NPP. Nwobodo was then campaigning for second term while Ojukwu who was granted presidential pardon by Shagari was jostling to take over from him.
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