Chapter 7
Revolting Aspects of the Pogrom
Under this head
we deal with what we consider the sinister aspects of the pogrom. Firstly, the
planning and organisation of the pogrom. We have dwelt with this at length in
the previous pages. Secondly the false sense of security to which the
Authorities lured the victims and the barefaced deception practised on their
victims was to us particularly revolting. The Kano slaughter of 1st and 2nd
October, 1996 was singularly successful because of this device. Easterners were
lured to Kano from many places in the far North to take a train to the East
that was supposed to leave on the 1st October when none was scheduled and when
the Easterners had gathered at the railway station soldiers were let loose on
them and a carnage was the result. Another aspect of this practice of deception
took place in many towns in the North. When Easterners got wind of an impending
attack and started to make arrangements to quit, the authorities would make
pronouncements refuting the rumour and assuring the Easterners of their safety
only to have them slaughtered within 24 hours of giving this false assurance.
The disarming of
Easterners before an impending attack was yet another aspect of this pogrom.
Easterners were disarmed, yet their potential assailants were left armed. It is
obvious that were it not that the seizure of arms was carried out by State
functionaries it was most unlikely that the victims would willingly have
surrendered the only remaining means for their own protection.
Thirdly the
evidence disclosed that it was not merely a case of Northerners descending on
Easterners and shooting, matcheting or clubbing them to death. They embarked on
various methods of torture and humiliation. One method was described by the 72nd witness – Dick lwebi. This punishment is one of the most dreadful ways of
crucifying a person. A heavy rod is tied across the back of chest of the victim
with his hands stretched and secured firmly on the rod. While the victim may
still be standing on his legs, he is as helpless as a man nailed to a cross. In
this position they then proceed to torture the victim by plucking his eyes,
cutting his tongue or cutting his testicles.
Another method
was holding a victim and killing him like a goat with a sharp knife to the full
gaze of other victims. See the evidence of the 168th witness - Daniel Agu:
On 2/10/66
we were in Mada Railway Station where we saw four Northern soldiers, one of
whom was called Mai Karfi (i.e. the most powerful man); another one was called
Mai Yanka (i.e. a great killer of human beings) but I did not know the names of
the other two soldiers. Mai
Yanka asked one Ibo man who was a boiler attendant in the Railway Station there
why he locked the pipe. He said that he locked it because there was no train
coming. Then Mai Yanka told him to shut up his foolish mouth. After saying this
he and the other three soldiers called all of us to come and see how they would
kill our brother Ibo man like a goat. Really, we all were forced to come and
witness it. In a minute, the man was gripped by them all and then Mai Yanka
took out his two- edged sword and cut his head like a goat as he said, at which
the man’s blood spread all over our bodies like water spurting from a tap. As a
matter of fact, we were all both horrified and gripped by fear.
And yet another
method was the burying of victim alive, (witness
No. 144 Miss Kate Ogbelu). In
a pogrom of this nature where humanity sinks to the lowest depths one expects
to find cases of rape. Rape is always an outrage on womanhood. There was such
evidence before us. In this case however we encountered indescribable instances
of heinous outrage on the womanhood of any people. “..Many of the girls in the
training school in Kano were collected and taken to the leper colony to live
with the lepers...” per
Eric Spiff (163rd witness). There
is leper colony a few miles from Kano at Zunkira. The reason for this we are
told was that Eastern girls refused to marry Hausa men in the past. A number of
other witnesses confirmed this story, (e.g. 190th
witness Ephraim Etuk).”
At Oturkpo there
was a camp where fleeing Eastern girls kidnapped from the trains were sent for
‘enforced’ prostitution. Many girls who were known to have had some gruesome
experience in this camp and other victims of rape were very shy to come forward
to testify. But there was enough evidence to show that children were raped -
see the evidence of Dr. Paul Nya
(187th witness) who treated Mary Udo aged 6. Then
Ephraim Ernest Etuk (the 190th witness) had something pathetic to tell:-
On the day of the incident, many people were killed and all the
N.A. Police men used their big lorries in carrying the corpses to the grave.
The dead people were buried in groups of 20, 50, and 60 in large graves dug by
the N.A. caterpillars. The burial was conducted by the armed soldiers. I really
saw this because I wore an Hausa dress calling myself a Northerner from Makurdi
area, and I can speak the language fluently. Another bad scene was when a Benin
lady was killed and many sharp pieces of broken bottles were packed into her
vagina and they left her naked inside the Hotel at 12 Odutola Street, Kano. One
Miss Paulina was killed in the same way at 5 Enugu Road in the International
Hotel, Kano. One Ibibio man was burnt alive in his car on the airport road. He
was a Meteorological Officer. I saw 20 Hausa men conduct sexual intercourse
with an Ibo girl at 15 Emir Road, Kano and at last the girl vomitted and died.
The same thing was applicable to her mother, a snuff trader. Soldiers got money
from many traders and killed them finally.
The attack on
schools and churches provides yet another instance of the callousness of the
assailants. To desecrate a church by persons professing to know and worship God
is a very queer way of doing Him honour. Lastly the attack on unarmed civilians
by the army and the police who are supposed to give them protection against
such attack is the limit. It marks the final disintegration of any political
society.
Chapter 8
Motives
What was the
motive behind this pogrom? This is a separate question from the causes of the
pogrom about which we shall deal in the next chapter.
It was the
complete extermination of Easterners from the face of Northern Nigeria. It was
even more than that. In this connection the seven-Point programme of the
organisers of the pogrom becomes relevant. It was tendered as Exhibit SWAN 24
and reads as follows:-
1. a)
To kill off the Major-General and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces –
J.T.U. Aguiyi- Ironsi.
b)
To
kill off all the Yanmiri Army Officers.
c)
And
subsequently purge the Army of Yanmiri by killing the rest in all the ranks.
2. a) With the aid of the Westerners in
the Army to take complete control of the Armed
Forces. The Police and the Navy and to
purge off the Yanmiri in these Forces too.
3. To kill off and
dispossess all the Yanmiri domiciled in the Northern Region.
4. To use the control of the Armed Forces
to take complete control of the Country’s Government.
5. To revenge Sarduana’s and Abubakar’s
death by killing Dr. Zik, Dr. Okpara, Ojukwu and Major Nzeogwu.
6. To destroy Port
Harcourt, Enugu and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
7. To kill off all:
a)
Yanmiri
in top Civil Service posts.
b)
All
wealthy Yanmiri - male and female.
c)
All
Yanmiri educational giants.
d)
All
grown up males and females of Yanmiri.
e)
To
leave out only sucklings in Yanmiri land.
The controlling
idea behind this plan was to exterminate the Yanmiri (Easterners) to a point
where the North will be ahead in every sphere of life and to be in a position
to dictate to their younger generation what to do. The circumstances in which
the seven - point programme came to be disclosed were narrated by the 8th witness Mr. S.W.A.N. Onuoha. The
seven-point programme appears on the face of it to be fantastic and too
diabolical to be entertained by any human being and least of all fellow
nationals but when one sees the evidence of the atrocity in all its aspects it
ceases to sound all that fantastic. They did try to exterminate all Easterners
in the North. The Kano massacre of October 1966 showed that they did their
utmost to achieve their aim in the principal towns, at least with the forces at
their disposal. The 125th witness
Paul Okwawa who looked every inch a Ghanaian (this
was his saving grace) gives a graphic description of what happened in Kano in
the October riots. Hear him:
After the July incident many Ibos in the North started to pack up
to go. It was then that the remaining Ibo teachers in primary and the secondary
schools were determined to leave Kano. But a week before the August holidays, a team of
School Inspectors (white and black), Police Officers and the Native Authority
police came to our school to assure us that our lives were no longer in danger.
On the strength of these assurances the teachers returned after the holidays. A week before the October massacre of Ibos in Kano occurred,
Mustafa Gashash, a student of Ibo Union Grammar School, Kano, met me on the
school premises and advised me to leave Kano before the first of October
because Northern soldiers and civilians were going to kill all the Ibos in
Sabon Gari.
I had no means of leaving since all train services between the
East and North had been discontinued. The alternative was to leave by air.
During this week my wife, my brother and my boy were with me. On Tuesday of
that week, I booked accommodation for four of us for £132:16s to travel by air
to Lagos the following morning, Wednesday.
When we arrived at the airport, the white officers and the
Northerners on duty told me there was no accommodation for us that morning, and
advised us to report at 2.30 p.m we were told to report again at 6.30 p.m. the
same evening. Again when we arrived we were told we could no longer travel that
day. The same thing happened on Thursday and Friday of that week. On Friday
evening when the last plane had left the airport, I went to one of the Northern
duty officers and asked whether or not we would be travelling again. He assured
me that nothing would stop us from travelling on October 1st. We could not
travel in the morning and the afternoon. At 6.30 p.m. on October 1st we arrived
at the Airport and to my greatest surprise I saw a sight that drove fear into
my heart. Literally all the Northern ex-politicians had gathered at the airport
in their immaculate white gowns. I saw Aminu Kano. I saw Maitama Sule, Inua Wada, many Europeans also came to the
airport. Exactly at 6.50 p.m soldiers in green shirts and trousers invaded the
airport.
I had a presentiment that something bad was in the air, and as we
sat near our luggage, we wondered whether these ex-politicians and their
European, Asian and Arab friends had come to witness the final liquidation of
our people. Soon shots were heard everywhere. That day was declared a public
holiday, and as usual many Ibos came to the airport. Many of us who could not
fly were surrounded by soldiers.
One soldier ordered me outside and asked me where I came from.
When I told him I was a Mid-Westerner he told me I was lying because he knew
where I came from. What I heard was “about turn, quick march.” I heard a shot
behind me and I fell down and passed out.
How long I was there before I came round I could not; but when I
became conscious, a heap of dead men was on me, some still breathing, but
others stone dead. It took me some time to extricate myself from the dead
bodies heaped upon me. I crept over other dead bodies as I
tried to hide because soldiers were still shooting people down in their hiding
places at the airport. Presently, I found myself in a big kitchen, the whole
length and breadth of which was littered with dead bodies. Two Hausa stewards
in the kitchen refused me entry until I had paid £5, and within seconds of my
entry about five armed Northern soldiers entered the kitchen shouting ‘are
there any more of Okpara’s brothers hiding here? Please let them come out; we
mean to kill all of them.’ The two Hausa stewards to whom I had paid my ransom
told them there were no more of Okpara’s brothers left to be shot. I was again
saved because I lay among the dead and pretended to be dead also. When I could
no longer hold out I got up and walked to the table where one of the stewards
was sitting, I shouted ‘please take me to the soldiers; I can no longer stand
this strain.’
Somebody emerged from under the big table on hearing me. It was
Mr. Lekettey, a Ghanaian who apparently was hiding from the savage soldiers. We
decide to give ourselves up to the soldiers. He was my uncle and I his nephew.
This strategy worked wonderfully, and when the soldiers heard us out, they
shouted in unison. ‘Why have you been hiding? We don’t want to kill Ghanaians.
They are our friends, Yorubas, Efiks, - all are our friends. We are after
Okpara’s brothers. We are going to finish them off.’ They took us upstairs
where we saw more dead bodies, some of whom I recognised. Mr. Lekettey and
myself gave them £10 for drink. They drank until 6.30 a.m. the following
morning 2nd October. These soldiers had some harsh things to say about Okpara
and Ibos, Okpara was their arch enemy who must be destroyed. ‘Why did they kill
our leaders while Okpara, Zik, and Osadebay were left out?’ Mbadiwe was the
only Ibo man who would be spared on their march to Eastern Region, because he
was ’our good man.’ All other Ibos must be destroyed.’ At 7 a.m. that same
Sunday morning, they asked Mr. Lekettey and myself to get ready because they
were going to show us how ‘we have dealt with Okpara’s brothers and sisters.’
They took us to the Railway Station in an army landrover, and there we saw a
sight which I would never like to see again to my dying day. Over 700 men,
women and children had been mowed down - they had been killed while they were
waiting for a train to take them to our Region. A few of the children were
still creeping over their dead mothers, shouting, ‘Mama I am hungry, I want to
drink.’ Some were trying to suck their dead mothers’ breasts! I left them to
suck on!
It should be borne in mind that three days before this
unprecedented massacre, it was announced over the Kano Redifusion Network that
a passenger train would be leaving Kano for Eastern Region on 2nd of October,
and that all those wishing to travel should report on 1st of October, at the
Railway Station. Over 700 Ibos packed to the Railway Station. This announcement
was caused to be made by one Mr. T. George, the Senior Train Officer, who
incidentally is a native of Idoma. He was educated at the Methodist College,
Uzuakoli. He was a member of Nasara Club, and attended all the meetings where
it was decided to kill all the Ibos in Kano.
They drove us to the Loco running shed, it was the same sad story
of murder. All the Ibo workers who had reported for duty were killed. Next, we
were taken round the Sabon Gari. It was the same massacre of Ibos in hotels
where they had gone to relax because it was a public holiday. All the hotels
were literally filled up with dead bodies. In Sabon Gari everywhere we went we
saw dead and dying Ibos. No tinge of compunction ever touched the conscience of
these soldiers who on the night of October 1st joined their civilian Northern
brothers to loot, pillage and kill our kith and kin. After we had seen enough,
they took us back to the airport where they continued killing those who were
suspected of being Ibos. A further £10 from us re-assured us that we were not
in any immediate danger, although one of the soldiers had doubted my identity
in particular. He took me aside and asked me in honesty if I was really a Ghanian,
I assured him I was, but I gave him £5 more into the bargain, I asked him to
take me round to see more of Okpara’s dead brothers, because the sight
intrigued me. My motive for asking this was far from being disinterested. On
the contrary, I mainly wanted him to take me round to see if I could stumble
upon the dead bodies of my wife, my brother and my boy whom I had not seen
since we were separated. My fears were soon confirmed. I saw the dead bodies of
my brother and my boy near where I was supposedly killed. I mastered my
emotional reactions because he was watching me all the time I went round the
airport where there were heaps of dead bodies, but I could not see that of my
wife. I saw other countless dead bodies I could well recognise. There were many
men and women who had come to the airport to see friends off, but all were
killed together with these friends. From the airport to Sabon Gari the road was
littered with dead bodies. They were picked out one by one along the road as
they were trying to escape from the airport, and shot in their cars, on
bicycles, scooters and on foot.
Meanwhile when these soldiers had ‘walked through’ the money we
had given to them, Mr. Lekettey and myself gave them further £20 to allow us
remain at the airport since all the houses in Sabon Gari had been ‘sacked’.
On the 4th of October, the soldiers informed us that they could no
longer guarantee our safety. At this time there were still isolated cases of
shooting and beating up of people suspected of being Ibos. We went back to
Sabon Gari, but the Yorubas we met refused to give me protection because they
said they knew me. I tried one or two European friends I knew, but each of them
swore they would rather die than give me protection since they were warned
previously not to give any Ibo man or woman any protection. There was no point
going to a Church compound since almost all the people who ran into such
compounds on 1st of October were beaten up or shot by Hausa soldiers. I saw
over 100 dead bodies on the Roman Catholic Church compound. I saw over 200 dead
bodies in and outside St. Stephen’s Church. A few Ibo Union Grammar School
girls had been raped by Hausa soldiers. There were quite a few of those girls
who would not live to tell their tales of woe! I saw one Rosaline Metu, a class three girl. I saw the look on
her face! She had gone beyond saving! These helpless girls had been abandoned
to their fate to die in that cursed place.
Another witness, Anthony Ebiringa (29th witness) described
his experience at the Kano Railway Station on the evening of 1st October:
I am a Grade I engine Driver and have served the Railway
Corporation for the past 26 years. It happened that I was on line working a
train from Kano to Nguru when the whole disturbance started. I was informed
rather too late when I was just 13 miles from my Station (Nguru) of the great
danger that awaited me there. However I narrowly escaped death by making my way
with the engine (he had detached the coaches in his flight) without ‘flag’ back
to Kano, trying to save both my life and the costly locomotive... I find it
very difficult to state in detail what happened at the Kano Railway Station for
it is beyond any human experience. It is better imagined than described.
The witness then
narrated how the Easterners congregated at the Kano Railway Station waiting for
a train that was supposed to leave for Enugu. He gave his estimate of the
prospective passengers as over 1,600. The train never came. It was a false
announcement. Then at 7 p.m in the evening of the 1st October tragedy descended
on them.
At about 8 o’clock in the evening very many of us, Railway Staff,
were in the Staff Office just chatting. Suddenly we saw a soldier in uniform.
He dashed inside the office. Because we were so congested he kept on jumping on
top of people ‘until he ran to the wall, cut off the telephone wire. As soon as
he cut it off we were looking at ourselves. We were surprised. Within a second
another jumped inside. They opened fire. What we heard was Ka-Ka-Ka: They were
not aiming at anybody, just flinging the thing up and down. The first bullet
got me here (forearm) as I was trying to run out. Another one passing hit me
here (foot). Two persons already shot dead were lying at the ‘door’ I fell on
them flat.
So, God gave me the sense. I just stretched my hand like this. The
blood was just gushing. The man shooting was behind me. As he was shooting,
many other soldiers were outside shooting. I did not know they were so many.
Half of my body was outside. I was just there looking when a certain lady, one
Oghe girl by name Eliza, daughter of Mr. Ofongwu, a driver (he was killed there (too) had her left eyes shot off; I identified
her here). So then they shot the girl here, being that she knows me and played
with my children (I was at Quarter 17 the father was at Quarter 18) she was
shouting: ‘Papa, Papa’ running to me. I could not move because if I move they
would know I was not dead. So in trying to shoot her, they got this leg (right
leg). When they got this leg I did not know they got me at the artery. So, as
soon as the bullet hit me, this leg died outright. I could not move and I did
not want to move. The girl had the bullet here (indicating the eye); the left
eye was off. (This girl is witness No 50). ...I never knew that my artery or
what they called tendon had been cut. After they finished shooting, everybody
was there just lying dead. We just saw blood rushing. You know Kano Platform is
built in a slopping way like this. Blood was just rushing into the gutter just
like rainfall. When they kicked their kit-car and went away, I saw one man get
up from some bodies that were lying dead. When he looked and did not see
anybody he ran. When he ran I was sure there was none of them remaining. I got
up to run. I never knew my tendon was cut. I could not run, so I had to sit
down again. All those my friends with whom I was conversing were lying dead.
Some with bullets here (head) some here (stomach). Some were just gasping and
blood was rushing everywhere, some from the nose and everywhere. There was no
alternative than for me to use my knees. I crawled and crawled and crawled past
all the rails in the railway station, under the waggons fill I got to the coach
siding.
When I got to the bush I felt afraid to enter anywhere because
there were flashes of torchlight in the bush as the soldiers were shooting
people here and there. I got to one quarters but all the people there, Yorubas
and Hausas, were sleeping. As I was going I saw many dead bodies including
those who were shot from the top of malina trees. I got to the loco and saw
that the people who were there were all shot. There were dead bodies in empty
wagons and everywhere. When I got there I saw a place which was very dark and
the time was about 2 o’clock in the night. I went there to hide and when I got
there I did not know that there were some other Easterners hiding there too.
When they saw me they were about to run away. Some of them recognised me. One
of them was my fireman before; one Mr. Odua of Asaba. They were five in all.
None of them was wounded at that time. They saw my leg and I told them that
place was not safe because it could be seen by people passing along the road
and that when soldiers would be passing they would feel that it was being used
as a hiding place. They said no that they were tired. When I left them and
started to crawl I did not go beyond a pole before I heard gun shots and they
were probably all killed. I kept on crawling until I reached a golf field where
Europeans play golf. There was some grass there and I had to lie down to have
some rest because all my knees were pealed and bruised.
I was there till half past three in the morning of 1st October.
There was a very heavy rain after about half past three. There was a very
bright moonlight that night before and after the rain. After the rain I started
to feel very cold because I had not been used to cold bath and had never had
one since I went to the North. I was therefore shivering. However, God showed
me a very big tree ahead and directed me to go there; may be the rain did not
fall there. On my reaching there I encountered an lbo man who saw me and picked
up a race. He did not know that it was very near a European’s quarter. When the
stewards and guards heard somebody running in the bush they pursued him
shouting ‘nyamiri, ga nyamiri.’
I saw
them catch up with him and were beating him and he was shouting ‘Chineke... e Chineke...e’ until I heard him no more and I
presumed he was dead.
The witness
continued in his own way to narrate his dreadful experience in Kano. He narrated
how the soldiers were searching the bushes for escaping victims with their
torchlights as “if they were searching for snails.” Fortunately for him the Red
Cross ultimately picked him up. He was flown along with the survivors to Enugu
where he received treatment. Details of his injuries are given in the chapter
dealing with ‘personal injuries.'
The slaughter was
not confined to the Ibos of Eastern Nigeria. The evidence disproves any such
idea. One has to read the evidence of Miss Grace Okon (the 165th witness), Miss
Elizabeth Okon (the 169th witness), Asuquo Effiong Ndiyo (the 171st witness),
Akrasi Ekukudo Akarasi (1722nd witness), Eso Ekpo Archibong (173rd witness,
Asuqu Bassey Duke (the 174th witness ), Edem Udo Inyang (180th witness), Arit
Okon (the 181st witness), Cyprian Etim Udoh (188th witness), Bassey lyang Ekpo
(195th witness), and many others to appreciate the point. They suffered
destruction of their property just like other Easterners.
That many
Easterners escaped and returned to Eastern Nigeria only showed that human
beings have an infinite capacity for survival. They jumped into deep wells and
remained for hours to escape slaughter (Okon E. Okon the 170th witness; hid in
the dug latrines (180th witness Edom Udo Inyang); slept in the ceilings for
days to avoid massacre.
Even one witness Cyril Maduagwu (75th witness) who was
hiding in the ceiling of a house in Kano for four days had to drink his urine throughout this period. He feared
that passing urine on the ceiling would betray his presence. Fleeing Easterners
had to sleep in bushes and on tree tops for days and in holes where they had to
grapple with snakes in addition; some were lowered into water tanks in the trains
for want of accommodation. A careful reading of the evidence adduced to the Tribunal
will repay the effort.
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