BREAKING NEWS: Asaba massacre: 58 years after, victim’s son seeks justice

Banners and candles are displayed during a ceremony commemorating the Biafran War. PHOTO: Sia Kambou/AFP via Getty Images

 

The son of one of the victims of Asaba massacre, Mr Augustine Nwanze-Maijeh, has appealed to the Federal Government to compensate the death of his father and other families of the victims of Asaba massacre.

The Late Augustine Nduka Majeh was killed in the Asaba massacre, which occurred in 1967 during the Nigerian civil war.

The St Augustine Catholic Church, Ibusa in Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State, on Tuesday remembered Late Augustine Nduka Majeh in his posthumous birthday thanksgiving at the church

Speaking shortly after the celebration, one of the sons, Mr Augustine Nwanze-Maijeh, told South-South PUNCH that his father was a philanthropist who had helped people and community.

He said, “We are remembering our father as we held a posthumous birthday Thanksgiving in his honour. The federal government of Nigeria assassinated my father and left us in pain and hardship.

“His passing away brought unimaginable suffering, both physical and psychological, to my decease mother and my siblings. My father’s wealth, both land and property, was confiscated. He has all the documents. We were very young. We have no clue what was happening around us.

“We are using this opportunity to appeal to the federal government to compensate for my father’s death and other victims of Asaba massacre.

“It’s inhumanity to humans the military committed a genocide, and the victims’ families deserved to be compensated. No amount of money will bring our fathers back, but it’s a way of healing our wounds.

“My father travelled down to Asaba to help one his friends who was a lawyer on that fateful day when he met his untimely death.”

Majeh, who disclosed that he was about five years old when his father was killed in the massacre, lamented that it took the grace of God for him and his siblings to survive things of life, having passed through hardship.

Recall that the people of Asaba had also been calling on the federal government to compensate the over 1,000 victims in the massacre.