1967 MASSACRE: Asagba Hails Asaba Women For Bracing Up To The Challenge

The Asaba community, in Oshimili south local government area of Delta state, on Saturday commemorated the 54th anniversary of the massacre that claimed the lives of many men in the community on October 7, 1967.

The men, in their numbers, were rounded up at the Ogbe-Osowe axis of Asaba and brutally murdered by Nigerian troops, leaving virtually every family in the land in grief.

In his remarks on the occasion, the Asagba of Asaba, Obi (Prof) Joseph Chike Edozien, said it was a tragedy that robbed the community of its leaders and able-bodied men who were carlously put to death, leaving behind their loved ones 

Obi Edozien noted that there had been a wrong impression that Asaba women owned most of the beautiful houses in the town, when actually the houses belonged to their husbands whose lives were cut short during the Nigerian Civil War.

The royal father said the gallant women widowed by the sad commentary worked hard to train and bring up their children, which helped to raise a new crop of leaders for the generation born after the tragedy.

He maintained that the Asaba community would continue to remember and pay tributes to its fallen heroes, and to celebrate and thank the women turned widows for their resourcefulness and hardwork to sustain the development and progress of the community after the brutal murder of their bread winners.

Also speaking, the Isama of Asaba, Chief Chuck Nduka Eze, said the Asaba Massacre Annual Memorial Anniversary provided an opportunity to create awareness on the tragic incident that befell the community in October 1967, leaving many families in private mourning, without any encouragement for protests.

Chief Nduka Eze said it was high time the Nigerian government owned the tragedy, stressing that the massacre remained a flagrant infamy that would continually hunt the country if the issues bordering on it were not addressed.

He announced that an appropriate Cenotaph and monument that would speak to the tragedy of Nigeria would soon be commemorated at the scene of the massacre to draw attention to the unfortunate incident.

On her part, the Omu of Asaba, Dr Ada Biose, described the massacre as a bitter experience which made it difficult for spinsters to find husbands within the community, but expressed appreciation for the efforts now being made to create awareness on the impact of the tragedy on the community.