Igbo Problem: Nigeria Army Says Biafra War Memorial In The Church Illegal - Okocha Happy Marcel

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]This is evening of Friday, May 29, 2026.

[00:00:04]This video is not about promoting a tribe or trying to bring down another tribe or promoting someone or trying to bring out bring down another person. But it's all about the reality that is happening as I'm speaking to you now.

[00:00:19]Nigeria have an ebo problem and I believe that you must have been hearing this from so many people. So I'm not the first person that you are hearing this from. Nigeria have an evil problem which emanated from a deep rooted ether hate or misunderstanding. I cannot even call it misunderstanding. I think it is hatred. Now few days ago this movement massup let me put it in that way so that people who have been hearing the name will understand the group I'm talking about. Massup published something that tomorrow being 30th of um May that they are going to remember um the fallen heroes during the Bafra war like they used to do it every every year. So um they directed that um this memorial should take place in so many place including churches and so on and so forth. Now that one is for mass up but this is a general something that I observe every May 30th. It it did not start today. It started for a very long time ago now. People don't have problem with that because this is what they observe every year peacefully. And apart from that, this is something that is deep rooted in our culture. In our culture, we remember dead ones. Like you will see a family after 10 years, 20 years their father passed away, they will organize a memorial to remember the kind of life their father lived to do the memorial. Now talk less of a memorial of more than 3 million people during the war. Guess what the Nigerian soldier I'm sorry to use the word Nigerian soldiers because I'm talking about Nigerian soldiers meaning I'm not talking about the institution I'm talking about Nigerian army they assume a jurisdiction that is not constitutionally their function to come out to say that mass don't have right to tell people to do the ceremony on the on May 30th I said what is wrong with these people what is your business with a memorial that people want to do the memorial of their loved ones, the memorial of like the dead ones. What is wrong with you? What is the problem all about in Aba Abia state last year the I I I was perceiving a chaos before Alexi issued a statement that anybody that want to do memorialia should go ahead and do memorial as far as you are doing a memorial and you are doing a peaceful memorial that he don't have any problem with anybody doing memorial that was where the Nigerian soldiers withdrew because they were trying to like the way they used to do things now clap down innocent people in the name of these people are promoting Bafra Then see there is nothing you are going to do that can stop all this ideology.

[00:02:58]You better learn how to accept the reality because if tomorrow it is going to by the way I am I am a part of another program that we are going to host tomorrow and the title of the program is unspoken EU genocide. Unspoken EU genocide. A genocide that happened during the war.

[00:03:18]What people are not telling you. So don't let people to tell your stories. I heard about the documentary that the BB that BBC is trying to put out and some people are at suspense and people don't really know what they about to dish out to the public. But guess what? Some people are on a red alert waiting for them to publish any nonsense so that they will counter it. However, there are so many books, so many stories that you know that have described everything that happened during the Bafra war. And tomorrow in our program, this is not about BBC. This is not about one person coming to write a story. We are going to bring veterans who fought the war.

[00:03:57]People who fought the war will come and tell you stories why they fought the war, why the war started and the reason why Nigeria is not sustainable with all this kind of thing going on. So that is the program we are going to host tomorrow. It will be on Zoom. I am looking forward to streaming it live on this platform. that is the possibility of doing it is high but I don't know how it's going to be anyway but I'll try my best to bring it to film it here so the stories of the horrors that happened like in my state in data state a lot of things happen not because the soldiers and soldiers were fighting not because Nigerian soldiers and Bfan soldiers were fighting no Asaba massacre the grave is still there the names of people who died in Asaba massacre is still there okay you can go to Asaba and see my state capital and see what I'm talking about what happened Nigerian troops were coming. Now there was a lie that was told to people. My father told me stories about what happened. You know they told so many people to deny that they are not EOS to embrace the federal troops. So they deny that they are not EOS. So they were as the federal troops I mean Nigerian soldiers Nigerian army as they were coming towards the Niger bridge um towards Oisha. So these people came out to embrace them with white node. Yeah. Welcome federator. Welcome welcome. The enemy knows you. You can deny your identity but your enemy knows you. No, they said these are the you know these are what is it called people now is from Okman. Then you from Asaba.

[00:05:29]You said you are not an EO person. They open fire on then they kill more than 10,000 people. Even people have not died. They buried them alive.

[00:05:36]They said in Zogun led the the coup that they called Eboku. Zun is from Okanam.

[00:05:42]And after masaba someone fromab is trying to tell them that you are not an ebo it's not their fault that is what they were told to say you can also hear from da not senator now exad's husband pedoku will tell you that we were told he was talking about life story we were told to deny being an ebo person I hope you're understanding so that the federal troops could pass my father told me how someone saved him you understand and when they came they they were looking for where is that man you understand? So these are the stories that people have to tell.

[00:06:18]People who are who fought the war have to tell the story and there is no one that can tell the story more than them.

[00:06:23]So the Nigerian soldiers just coming out to say rubbish that people should not remember their loved ones who have died in a way they like. As far as you are not doing violence, you have the right to remember them if you want to go to church. In fact even the church like Catholic church they used to do all since day memorial of this saint memorial of this one they remember the dead people. So if you are a Muslim or is not in your culture and you are a Nigerian soldier, you are a Nigerian highranking officer because you are not from the southeast and it's not in your culture, you are not a Christian, then you want to think that the way other cultures and other religion is that that is the way you are going to impose on people. It is not going to work for you.

[00:07:08]Okay? It is not going to work for you.

[00:07:09]So these are the things you expect tomorrow stories and stories about what transpired before like this story you're about to watch. take a listen >> sharing a part of my mother's story um from the Bafan war Nigerian civil war and I'll be reading as her voice Nigerian troops snuck into a saban camped at St. Patrick's College, a series of shell explosions and my mother suggested we run to her brother's house.

[00:07:39]Her brother Aba Madame Mesia, one of the few people in Asaba with a large secure gate. A multitude of people were on the run as well. It was chaos. People were running to different directions. We ran for about four miles when we stumbled upon a troop of soldiers in a pickup van. They yelled something in house language, pointed their guns at us, and rounded us up for St. Patrick's. On arrival, it seemed it seemed as if the whole Asaba town was there at St. Patrick's. At this point, my mother's state of panic has started showing on her face. She kept turning the faces of the crowd, maybe hoping to see my second elder sister, Uka, and my younger brother. They had gone to visit an ill relative. It all felt like a dream, especially when we had spent days and months at St. Patrick's. what we call the civilian camp.

[00:08:29]Food was rationed. We couldn't wash for days on end. Suddenly, all women and girls were separated from the men. The women were taken to St. Joseph Mission near Nikab while the men and boys were left at St. Patrick's College. We hadn't seen my brother yet. We hadn't walked a mile when somebody yanked my hand away from my mother's and buted his gun on my buttocks. I winced. I couldn't look the soldier in the eye. Follow me, he said.

[00:08:55]My mother pleaded with him to take her instead. He ignored her and dragged me out of a crowd. I didn't think twice. I took off. I ran as fast as I could. Even as I prayed that he would not shoot me.

[00:09:07]He didn't shoot. I ran into what seemed like a forest. I didn't know where I was running to, but I knew I had to escape.

[00:09:14]After I covered a good distance, I stopped. I was out of breath, but cautious. The explosions were relentless. In spite of the shelling, I ran into a boy and a girl, perhaps siblings, who were so carried away by the sight of a fighting jet that they waved they waved at it in awe. I looked up briefly, too. But when I stepped on a cops, I took off running again. My eyes welled up with tears. There were dozens of dead people across the path I run.

[00:09:42]When I heard a loud chant of cashu, not wanting to be discovered, I ran to a tree and stood still till the chant subsided. With my eyes still welled up, I noticed an older woman beckoning at me to come. I wet my eyes to be sure I was seeing a human being. She persisted. I ran to her and she ignored me and saw her and she guided me to a touched house. The house was filled with women.

[00:10:06]To my utter surprise, my sister Udeka was there. She said that she left my brother at our relative's place. We clung on to each other talking loudly.

[00:10:14]The women told us to be quiet. The largest woman in the room asked us to sit on the floor. I was whispering about how I escaped from a soldier when a rumble of explosions and shelling erupted. I kept quiet. The large man assured me that I could talk, but not too loudly. With more shelling explosions, everywhere was quiet. Then a shell explosion ripped through the the distance, but he had pierced through our roof and landed on the large woman's left hand. Half of her hand was on the floor. The storm that was left of that hand was gushing blood. Instantly, a pool of blood settled around her feet.

[00:10:50]Two women to off the edges of their wrap and tied the bleeding hand. They wrapped the arm firm and held it up. The bleeding reduced but never stopped. That was enough incident to make us decide to find our way to St. Joseph.

[00:11:03]wideeyed I clung to my sister even as I whispered to her about how worried our mother must be about my brother she told me it to be all right because we had been hiding it was decided that we find a way to sneak back to St. Joseph because if we were caught as escapees we might be executed we were barely at St. in Joseph premises when a short chubby woman called my name. Are you not Was I didn't answer. They have been dragging your mother and your sister around the whole town threatening to kill them if they don't find you. A welp escaped from my mouth but Udka placed her hand on my mouth. The lady volunteered to take us to where they where they were kept with the soldiers watching over them. I hurried to them, but I I hurried to them, but before I could collapse in their arms, three soldiers grabbed me. One slapped me, another slammed his rifle on my breast. "So you can run," he said. He cuffed my breast with a smack. "You can run with these big things," he said, jiggling them.

[00:12:04]However, another the tallest of them told him to stop. He had called him Peter and was surprised, and I was surprised at his reaction. They bragged about how they have had many girls, even those that willingly offer themselves to save their family's lives. But Peter told them to hands off me and my family, that we were his. They teased him about how greedy he was. He wanted four women all to himself. He pointed his gun at us and promised to teach us a lesson. Then he walked us to a deserted area. I could hear the screams of women pleading for mercy. Goosebombs spread all over my body and I remembered why I was bent on escaping. I tried to swallow the pain on their behalf, but a lump of saliva stuck on my truth. That might be my fate. My sisters and my mothers. As he walked us further out of St. Joseph camp, another soldier followed him closely and they spoke in house. I stared at my sister and coasa to see if she understood what they were saying. As a teenage bride, Enoasa had lived in Kaduna with her late husband. She could understand the language and spoke it fluently, but she frowned at me. My mother broke down and pleaded with them to let her see her son before they killed him. My sister acted as an interpreter. Surprisingly, they both said something to each other. The language this time was not houseer. As my sister confirmed, it was a strange language. A few minutes into our walk, a truck full of soldiers stopped right in front of us. A spatter of exchanges in house language ensued's eyes brightened. She asked Peter a question in house, but other soldiers hushed her up. My mother warned her to not get us into further trouble. Koas were revealed that the elders of Asaba had called for an end to the violence and the Nigerian side had invited all men to Oo so for peace talks. I could have sworn I saw a smile on my mother's face. She called on a river goddess to save us said that they had asked them to set us free.

[00:14:01]requested that they set us free. Since that since peace the peace talk was on the way, but the two soldiers sparked on her face. Peter looked away. They took us back to St. Patrick's College. Then Peter said he had granted my mother's wish to see her son. We were separated as they asked to be the only one. As they asked me to be the only one to identify my brother, we looked for hours but could not find him. I was so hungry.

[00:14:26]I begged Peter to find me something to eat. or he asked me to choose between finding my brother or something to eat.

[00:14:32]We were heading to the last building that we hadn't searched. I wanted to see how loose his grip was when I took my hand because I was planning for another escape. He kicked me on my legs and my hunger seemed to have disappeared. My brother was in the last building we entered. He was snoozing in a corner. I screamed as soon as I saw him. We hugged each other but the soldiers separated us. They took us back to where they left my mother and my sisters, then headed to one of their bays at Umu Aago. They had forcefully taken the family home as they did with many other homes. We were shoved into a room and locked up. We were there but lost touch of time.

[00:15:08]However, Peter was faithful with bringing us food. But we had only a bucket to urine and So most times the stench was unbearable. My mother was the only one allowed to take out the feces. When my sisters and I bled during our periods, our rappers were soaked with blood. Our bloody rappers were not the least was the least of our problems.

[00:15:30]On the day Peter asked us to come out of a room, the air didn't smell fresh.

[00:15:34]Copses were littered all over the landscape. I felt a lump of vomit in my throat. Vultures competed with jet planes in the sky. While some vultures hovered, many jabbed at bloated human flesh. We were in a state of confusion and shock, unsure of what Peter wanted to do with us.

[00:15:51]We were taken back to St. Joseph where we were told that the call for peace was a roose to massacre men and boys above the age of 10. I have only one minute so I'll just sum up what I have left. Um my mother was kidnapped or was kidnapped with her family or taken captive by the the military man who happens to be my father because he had seen her and he liked her. And he didn't reveal all of this to them until the war more or less subsided or moved eastward.

[00:16:24]So at the end of the story, what my mother ended with was that when the Niger bridge was blown up by Bafans to prevent the encroaching Nigerian soldiers, it was said that Onish helped Asaba people to prevent the soldiers from coming back because for every boat that was crossing, she stopped and be beckoned at them to keep coming forward to her. But the boats were sinking so that the Nigerian soldiers were forced to find another route to the east but not through Asaba. I think they headed north or south as she said. So that's the end of my story and thank you for listening.