Nigerian leader frees Biafran soldiers

[PrincessB]

Wednesday, 13 November, 2002, 14:26 GMT
Nigerian leader frees Biafran soldiers

 
The separatist war resulted in a million deaths

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has granted an amnesty to 80 soldiers who fought in the Biafran war.
The war, declared in 1967 by the country's third largest ethnic group, the Igbo, was for the independence of part of south-eastern Nigeria. Some one million people were killed

Officials said the presidential pardon, announced on 12 November was in the spirit of general reconciliation and to put the sad memory of the war behind Nigeria.

The 80 soldiers to receive the presidential pardon were members of the Nigerian army who crossed over to the Biafran side during the civil war.

The war ended in 1970 with defeat for the secessionists, led by Emeka Ojukwu. The three states that had wanted to leave were re-integrated into the country.

Reconciliation

President Obasanjo's amnesty is being seen by critics as a political move as it comes against the background of calls by Igbo groups for him not to seek re-election in next year's elections.

Some Igbo leaders say it is high time an Igbo became president, something they would see as a sign that true reconciliation has been achieved.

Mr Ojuku, who was himself later pardoned, had gone to war following the massacre of Igbos in the north following the coups in the late 1960s

Those pardoned are mainly from south-eastern Nigeria although not exclusively Igbo. A few of them are still in jail but most are not.

"This pardon wipes out the stigma of dismissal," said state governor Segun Osoba


I read this...and I was rather disturbed.
Personally I had never thought there were any soldiers in
prison..from the civil war times.

Please let's all tribes stand united in Love thought and Deed

STOP THE WARS..STOP THE HATE UNITED WE STAND
DIVIDED WE FALL.

It is high time we did this and stop letting the Western world
laugh at us.

PrincessB