Fifty eight years after the Asaba Massacre, memories of the tragedy that wiped out hundreds of innocent men and boys in the Delta State capital remain raw and haunting. Marking the anniversary on Tuesday, Ogbueshi Godfrey Odogwu, Director General of the Technical Committee on Anioma State Creation, released a statement recalling the dark day that changed Asaba forever and reaffirmed the community’s commitment to preserving the memory of its martyrs.
Odogwu, in his statement to the press, described the massacre as one of the darkest and most heart-wrenching episodes in Nigeria’s history. He recalled that on October 7, 1967, during the Nigerian Civil War, federal troops rounded up about one thousand Asaba men and boys at Ogbe Osowe Village and executed them in cold blood.
He narrated that the men, along with their wives, mothers, and children, had earlier poured into the streets in traditional Akwa Ocha attire, singing, drumming, and joyfully chanting “One Nigeria! One Nigeria!” in a show of solidarity and support for the federal troops. But their chants were abruptly silenced by the sound of machine gun fire. “The blood of Ndi Ahaba flowed and watered the land of Ahaba. The women and children, who had earlier been separated from the men and boys, watched their loved ones screaming and rolling in pain in the pool of their own blood until their last breath. Their only sin was that they were Igbo and in support of Biafra troops”, Odogwu said.
Recalling his personal experience, Odogwu said he was only 13 years old at the time. Along with his parents, siblings, and many Asaba families, he fled across the Niger Bridge a day before the massacre, as gunfire raged through the town. “We ran for our lives, first to Onitsha, then to Notre Dame High School campus, Abatete, where the people welcomed us as refugees. Some of us were later moved to Zixton Grammar School campus, Ozubulu, where we were camped for the three years the Nigerian Civil War raged,” he said.
Odogwu also drew attention to the eyewitness account of his cousin and friend, Dr. Emmanuel Ify Uraih, who survived the massacre and whose forthcoming book documents the horror in detail. Uraih, then 15 years old, witnessed the killing of his father and elder brother on that fateful day and survived by collapsing among the corpses.
In his gripping recollection, Dr. Uraih wrote: “We were gathered at Ogbeosowa, about one thousand men and boys surrounded by a detachment of the Nigerian Army carrying sub-machine guns. Their leader, a Second Lieutenant, addressed us in Pidgin English: ‘Me, I come from Chad, but dem born me for Adamawa, I hate all Ibos. You be Ibos, therefore you must die.’ It was then it dawned on us that we had all been condemned to death.”
He continued: “I was standing with my elder brother Emma at the edge of the crowd. He was holding my hand. Even to death, he felt it was his duty to protect me. Emma was the first to be dragged by the soldiers. He let go of my hand and pushed me further into the crowd. I saw Emma struggling with one of the soldiers as another shot him from behind at point-blank range. He fell, blood gushing from his back, his shattered vertebrae exposed in the afternoon gloom, the first victim of the massacre that followed.”
Dr. Uraih recalled how the troops opened fire on the crowd, cutting down hundreds in minutes. “All hell was let loose. A good number of the men and boys tried to run into the surrounding bushes, but many of them were cut down as they fled. The rest of us fell to the ground in utter hopelessness. As I fell, I recited the prayer my catechism teacher taught me ‘Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul.’ When I opened my eyes, my whole body was wet, I was covered with blood.”
The then-teenager survived by pretending to be dead among the corpses until nightfall, when he crawled away with a wounded cousin. His father and two brothers were killed, their remains later recovered and buried by his mother. “For several years,” he wrote, “my mother lived with the illusion that one of my brothers must have escaped somehow and found his way to Biafra. But we had to accept years later that somewhere in Asaba, like several others, lies his body in an unmarked grave.”
Odogwu said Dr. Uraih’s testimony stands as one of the most vivid accounts of what transpired at Ogbe Osowa, a reminder of how an entire generation of Asaba men was decimated in one afternoon. He described his cousin’s survival as “a miracle and a responsibility,” urging that such stories continue to be told for future generations.
Meanwhile, the 14th Asagba of Asaba, His Royal Majesty, Prof. Epiphany Azinge, SAN, led this year’s anniversary events in the Delta State capital. In his commemorative address, the Asagba called on Ndi Ahaba to continue to remember those massacred and to draw strength from the knowledge that “their blood watered the land of Asaba.” He noted that Asaba is rising from the tears and blood of 58 years ago through sheer resoluteness, diligence, and resilience, declaring that “Asaba will never forget our martyrs.”
