THE BIAKPAN MASSACRE BY BIAFRAN FORCES

 

WRITTEN BY SAMUEL ENO

Not long ago i read a post denying the Biakpan massacre during the last civil war. Biakpan is a town in the present Biase local government  area of Cross  River state.

The  recurring  problem  with the  Biafran agitation is that, always  the views of the Eastern minorities were or are never sought or taken into consideration  before  decisions  were or are taken for our inclusion in the foray.  Even this new agitation has run into the same mistake.

For instance  who has sought the opinion or relevance of the so called Eastern Nigerian  minorities before their inclusion in the new Biafran map? 

When that Biakpan massacre  occoured in 1968 i was very small but i can still remember it.

Many of Biakpan people ran  to Ugep as refugees.  One young girl named Cecelia about 18 years old lived with us. Many years  after the war we tried to locate her but  we never saw her again.

She told us what happened as she had lost all her parents and siblings.  So the Biakpan massacre was real. It happened.  Most of you may not have been aware that Ugep was horridly liberated by the federal  troops in 1968 because  intelligence report had it that the biafrans were ready to carry out the same massacre in ugep because of Dr Okoi Arikpo an Ugep indigene who  was then the federal  Commissioner for External Affairs on the federal side.

When the Federal troops who were stationed in Iwuru in Biase local government area got wind of it, they decided to take Ugep that day at all cost to the surprise of the Biafran troops stationed in ugep. I can remember  vividly even now the concocted face of  major williams the south african mercenary.  They were in front of chief  ikpi itam's house in Usaja near the ugep round about very close  to our house.

Major williams was a terror. By 7am that day  the news was all over the place that Ugep was going to be given the Biakpan treatment because of Dr Arikpo. But the almighty God never allowed it to happen.  The Nigerian forces had to bomb Ugep that day to stop the Biafran soldiers  from carrying out their heinous crime thereby allowing a very friendly federal  force to liberate  the town to the disappointment of the Biafran solldiers who were ready to massacre  the ugep people that night.  

You can verify  this story from older people from ugep. I was in elementary 3 and our house was the centre  of NEWS as my late father used to buy three daily newspapers (The West  African pilot, Daily Times and the Eastern Nigerian Outlook) everyday before , during and after  the war. So early in life i was already very conversant with what was happening  around me.

I knew how to read the news paper at a very early age. We also had a transistor radio and my father tuned to radio Togo every night to tell us what was really happening as there was no objectivity on both Radio Biafra and Radio Nigeria. This rare privilege afforded me the opportunity to know what most youth of  my age never knew. There were and are many stories of the war.

Let's not dig deep into what happened  during that war, let's  not open old wounds  because  all parties  suffered casualties. 

The way things are going i may be forced to write a book titled " FROM THE EYES OF A LITTLE WITNESS "