From Isaac Ojo
A legal luminary Barr Ifeanyi Ejiofor (Dunu-Ezeugosinachi) yesterday said that the pains of Asaba massacre during the 1967-70 Nigeria Civil War cannot heal through pretence of forgetfulness.
Ejiofor noted that the during the war Asaba witnessed one of the darkest and most devastating genocide in human history, adding that fifty-nine years later , the wounds remain painfully alive in the memory of a people whose innocence was shattered by unimaginable cruelty.
He declared emphatically that the Asaba Massacre was not merely a tragedy of 1967; but a wound inflicted upon the conscience of a nation.
The Human Rights Lawyer pointed out that the request by Asaba people for an unqualified apology from the sitting President of Nigeria as echoed by HRM, Prof Epiphany Azinge (SAN) can be the genuine closure and complete healing for them.
“Consider the national recognition accorded to Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola and the official recognition of 12 June as Democracy Day in honour of his struggle for democratic governance.
“If Nigeria can acknowledge historical injustice and immortalise a defining chapter in its democratic journey, why should a formal presidential apology to the innocent victims of Asaba be beyond reach?
“The demand is not for revenge. It is a plea for truth, dignity and recognition. It is a call for the nation to look its painful history in the face and acknowledge the humanity of those whose lives were so cruelly cut short.
“Mr President, the people of Asaba are not asking you to rewrite history. They are asking you to acknowledge it. An unqualified presidential apology would not restore the dead, erase the trauma or undo the devastation of 1967.
“But it would affirm that their lives mattered, that their suffering has not been forgotten, and that the Nigerian state recognises its moral obligation to the bereaved community.
“Let the government heed the counsel of the Asagba of Asaba. Let the nation choose the courage of acknowledgement over the comfort of silence”, Barr Ejiofor asserted.
