THISDAY 09.22.2006 
Margaret
Ekpo Dies at 92
Ernest Chinwo in Calabar and Sheriff Balogun in
One of the surviving foremost first republic female politician in the country, Mrs
Margaret Ekpo died at the age 92 years.
The elder son Mr Eddy Ekpo
who confirmed the death to newsmen in Calabar
yesterday said that her mother passed on at the University of
Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), Thursday aftnoon.
Mr. Ekpo said that her remains of her mother was returned to the family house at Ikot
Ishie in Calabar.
The Nigerian politician and women's activist, Margaret Ekpo
was born in Creek town in the present Odukpani Local
Government of Cross River State on
Margaret was the sixth of nine children (and the only surviving c hild now) met and married John Udoh
Ekpo who was from Ikot Eyo in Eket, in present-day
Margaret has 12 grandchildren and 13 great grand children and she was the
Nigerian Representative at the Inter-Paliamentary
Union Conference in 1964, Nigerian Representative - World Women's International
Domestic Federation Conference, in 1963, Member of Parliament - Government of
Nigeria between 1960 - 1966. She also headed the
Women's Interest Representative - Nigerian Constitutional Conference in 1960,
and Delegate - Nigerian Constitutional Conference 1959 and 1957, among others.
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GUARDIAN –
Senate, APGA mourn Margaret
Ekpo
FROM both the Senate and the All Progressive Grand Alliance
(APGA) came tributes on Tuesday to the late nationalist, Mrs. Margaret Ekpo. Mrs. Ekpo died last
Thursday at the
The Senate observed a minute silence in her honour and passed a resolution to pay her family a condolence visit.
The Senate also resolved to send a letter of condolence to
President Olusegun Obasanjo,
and as a delegation to condole with the government and people of
Joy Emordi (PDP-Anambra) had moved a motion extolling the late Ekpo's immense contributions to the emancipation of Nigerian women and the country's development generally.
She asserted that no honour done the late nationalist would be too much in view of her unparalleled patriotism throughout her long and active life.
Bassey Ewa-Henshaw
(
While Yari Gandi (ANPP-Sokoto) paid tribute to her as "a great woman of substance", Daisy Danjuma (PDP-Edo) described Ekpo as "the last of the great Nigerian women of the past."
"We all appreciate and recognise the tremendous role she played as a woman nationalist," she said.
A statement issued on Tuesday in
"The late Chief Margaret Ekpo was an embodiment of patriotism and nationalism, an amazon of Nigerian politics," it noted. The statement recalled her role in leading the famous Aba Women Riot of 1929 against the British colonial rulers.
It urged women in politics to emulate the late Ekpo, saying that Nigerians were consoled by the fact that she led a life worthy of emulation.
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This Day News -
The historic
The partitioning which gave rise to most of the present day territorial boundaries across the continent left individual African countries as economic and political appendages to their respective colonial masters, diminished the African identity and promoted the spirit of isolationism in the relationship between Africa and the rest of the world.
Chairman, Africa
Business Roundtable (ABR), Alhaji Bamanga
Tukur expressed this view yesterday in an exclusive
interview with THISDAY ahead of today’s convergence of African business leaders
and scholars at the prestigious Transcorp Hilton,
Tukur, a former Governor of old Gongola State and later Minister of Industries, said despite the continued overtures by Western nations to help Africa out of poverty and underdevelopment, Africa was like an orphan since Africans themselves have failed to take their destiny in their own hands and were only
interested in seeking remedies from Western nations whose economic interests have been designed
to keep
He said to reverse the trend of underdevelopment, African countries must learn to believe in themselves, rejuvenate the true African spirit of brotherhood, communalism and pursue vigorously economic integration policies and programmes that will facilitate the free movement of people, goods and services within the continent. The proposed integration, Tukur explained, should be such that African countries under the umbrella of the African Union have one passport, one visa and one
currency just like what obtains
today in
“
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GUARDIAN
-
Margaret Ekpo
(1914-2006)
THE quintessential Chief Margaret Ekpo,
a doyen of women activism in
Margaret Ekpo was born on
Unfortunately, the answer is no. Much remains to be done in terms of the
structure of the
Margaret Ekpo was born in an era of colonialism in which the people had no voice in the management of their affairs. Quite early she emerged as one of the few people of courage who rose against colonial repression and economic exploitation. And she did that at the youthful age of 15 when she participated in the now historic and famous Aba Women's riot of 1929.
Thereafter she gravitated naturally and inevitably towards the burgeoning nationalist movement and the associated agitation for independence. This placed her on the same pedestal with other nationalist heroes, principal among them Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Mazi Mbonu Ojike, M. I. Okpara, Janet Mokelu, Jaja Nwachukwu, M. T. Mbu, Malam Aminu Kano, Hajiya Gambo Sawaba, S.L. Imoke and the irrepressible Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti.
Margaret Ekpo formed the Aba
Market Women Association in 1946 as a platform to advance the interest of
women. In reaction to the so-called
The formation of the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC) in the 1940s gave Margaret and a few other women in what was then the Eastern Region the platform to participate in party politics. She rose to become leader of the women's wing of the NCNC and in 1954 was nominated into the Eastern House of Chiefs to represent the interest of women. She was also an active participant as a delegate to the series of constitutional conferences that preceded the granting of independence in 1960, and was subsequently elected into the House of Representatives. Throughout this period Margaret Ekpo toured the country on numerous occasions, mobilising women, raising their political consciousness and exhorting them to become active participants in politics. She remained until her death a fierce defender of women's rights.
These days Nigerian women appear to have become very quiet; their voices are no longer as prominent or loud in discourses on national issues, at least compared to the times when activist like Margaret Ekpo, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti and Hajiya Gambo Sawaba dominated the political and social landscape. Yet, problems of child abuse, women empowerment, girl marriage, genital mutilation, wife battery, disinheritance of women and widowhood pose serious challenges to our society. We call on our educated women to become more socially and politically active. Let the nation begin to hear the voices of its women.
Margaret Ekpo's death brings an era to an end. Nevertheless, her memory can be transformed into a rallying call for the creation of a nation in which all will have equal access to the endowments of this country in a fair and equitable manner. That is the duty the nation owes the generation of nationalists and activists represented by Margaret Ekpo.
2003 - 2006 @ Guardian Newspapers Limited (All Rights Reserved).
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VANGUARD
- Posted to the Web:
TRIBUTE: Mrs. Margaret Ekpo: And the
woman died
By Bolade Omonijo Deputy
Political Editor
WHENEVER the story of feminism
and women involvement in political and social activism in
Now, the last of the matriarchs, Mrs. Margaret Ekpo
has passed on at 92. Mrs. Ekpo, born of lgbo parentage, grew up in
Mrs. Ekpo’s involvement in politics was at once
epoch-making and legendary. Prior to 1945, incidentally the year that the
Second world war ended and the National Council of
Nigerian citizens, a major political party in
It took a political rally in
That was all the encouragement that Margaret Ekpo needed. She plunged fully into the enterprise, took up the responsibility of mobilising women to get involved in politics and threw away all else. Mrs. Ekpo did the job so forcefully and noticeably that she became the symbol of resistance in the East.
She was not only a politician but a woman of substance and conscience. When
the civil war broke out, Mrs. Ekpo, being an
unabashed and unrepentant nationalist, rejected the narrow platform and refused
to be cowed. Even on a visit to
As in all things she set her mind on, Mrs. Ekpo
made a great success of her political involvement. In recognition of her
contribution to the making of the NCNC, Mrs. Ekpo was
nominated a member of the Eastern House of Chief in 1954. Between 1953 and
1959, she was a regular member of the Constitutional Conferences that prepared
No sooner did
Mrs. Margaret Ekpo who was born
Long after independence, Mrs. Ekpo kept in touch
with national affairs and expressed concern on issues. She received no less
than 43 awards including an Order of the
Mrs. Ekpo died not totally a happy woman. She once
lamented the treatment she got from Nigerians.
A few years before her death, the amazon in
politics had this to say in a press chat: “I’m in sympathy with female politicians
today because the economic strangulation today has placed them at a
disadvantage.
“My regret in life is that I sacrificed myself politically for this nation and
then forgot myself. I left all my children, my husband, my job and plunged very
deep into politics, but here I am today.
“Those whom we fought for, the Nigerians whom we fought for, the Nigerians
we cared and care for, the Nigerians we tendered for, have all forgotten us.
“I hope Nigerians of this present generation will not forget those other women
who are playing deep into politics.”
Yes, the woman has completed her assignment on this side of
the divide. She is not one to be lost in a crowd or be consigned to the
footnote of history books. She was a giant. She was a legend. She truly lived
here.
The footprints of Mrs. Margaret Ekpo (OFR) - 1914 to
2006 are very visible in the sounds of her time. And, in the history books, she
will continue to have chapters devoted to her pioneering political exploits.
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Daily Sun
How I rescued crash victims, by heroic boy •
How plane went down
His name is Detimber, which means ‘Don’t delay.’ No wonder he acted fast in climbing to the top of the mountain when he heard the thunderous crashing sound of the military plane that fateful Sunday morning.
•Detimber
PIX: Sun News Publishing
* National Index
advertisement
Speaking with Daily Sun in his father’s
compound at Mbakumu, a village separated by Ngokugh mountain from Obudu
cattle ranch, Detimber said the day started with a
very cloudy weather and it was threatening to rain when the sound of a passing
aircraft was heard at about
"Shortly after the aircraft had passed through our compound, we heard a very fearful noise on top of the mountain which lasted for about thirty minutes or more."
Determined to find out what really happened, Detimber took off to the top of the mountain, a journey which lasted three hours. And what he saw shook him – a crashed plane with human beings trapped inside.
"I saw books flying everywhere and then a large expanse of land that looked as if it had just been cleared. When I trailed that route, I saw a plane that had crashed with human beings trapped inside," he said.
Detimber disclosed that when he was about to run away from the scene, one of the victims who he suspected to be the pilot beckoned on him to come and tried to convince him get help for them fast.
"When I moved closer, I saw human beings in army uniforms, some dead and a few still alive and rolling in pains. I began to shiver and started crying."
At that point, Detimber who only communicates in pidgin English said the man gave him his GSM handset which he used to call his father whose compound is at the foot of the mountain to mobilize people with axes and cutlasses so that they can bring out the trapped victims from the wreckage.
This took another three to four hours and by the time the villagers were done, 18 persons were brought out, among whom were 12 Generals, three lieutenant colonels and three crew members.
"Thirteen among them were dead while five persons were still alive but most of them were badly injured and unconscious," offers the heroic boy.
The villagers immediately set in motion machinery to resuscitate the dying solders and to also get in touch with the state government via the local council, informing them of the air disaster in their village.
A health worker in the village, John Toryila who was also contacted to give first aid to the victims, said he had to place some of the survivors on drips because of their critical condition after cleaning up their wounds and applying iodine and bandages.
The villagers also mobilized to take food and water to the survivors and when it was too late to come down from the mountain top, they all decided to stay with the victims until the next morning when the helicopter marked NEMA Rescue came to evacuate them.
Benue State Government Dr. George Akume who still made it to the village around
He gave scholarship to Detimber from primary to the university level for the great feat and directed the State Commissioner of Works, Engr. Charles Mary to open an account in his name with immediate effect.
The villagers were not also left out as the Army Chief Andrew Azazi who was impressed by their commitment to helping fellow Nigerians gave them the sum of N 480,000,00 as gift.
The Chief of Army Staff who said the victims were supposed to be having a meeting with him at Obudu Cattle Ranch that Sunday evening noted that the aircraft was to drop them and come back to pick him and others.
Also, the Chief Press Secretary to the Benue State Governor, Tyodzua Atim who rode on a bike from Adikpo to the site of the crash described it as one tragedy too many in the annals of Nigeria as a country.
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Vanguard -
How mountain cold preserved
bodies of victims
By George Onah,
Tina Anthony, Rotimi Ajayi
& Kingsley Omonobi
*Bamali's widows
want him buried in
CALABAR—THE extreme cold weather at Ngokugh mountain in Benue State
where the Air Force plane crashed, killing 13 military officers helped in
preserving their corpses for 30 hours (between 8.30am Sunday and Monday
Ngokugh mountain is in Mbakunu community of Sangev Ya district of Kwande local
government of
Meanwhile, the two widows of General Nuhu Bamali said yesterday they would
have preferred their husband to be buried in
Both widows showered praises on their late
husband just as it emerged that one of the survivors, Lt. Col. O. C. Ajunwa, was the first to alert the military authorities
about the crash.
He was the first to regain consciousness
and called the military assistant to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Col. Onumajuru. Colonel Ajunwa’s
bravery aside, more facts emerged last night on how the aircraft carrying the
soldiers crashed.
Directly at the bottom of the imposing
mountain are five thatched houses as well as one with roofing sheet, which form
the compound owned by Mr. Chia
Anakula. He is a peasant farmer, who first noticed
the “unusually low-flying aircraft” above his domain, ‘that exploded afterwards
in the mountain with a very loud bang.”
Anakula told Vanguard, yesterday, that he was preparing for
church service “when I noticed the sound of an aircraft flying across as usual
but this time very low and frightening. Then before I could go back into my
room, I heard a very loud sound behind the mountains. I quickly called my
youngest son, Detimbir, to call on his elder brother,
Ternenge, to go and find out what the sound at the
mountain was all about.”
The boy then took over the narration from
there, saying: “My brother and I had to leave immediately for the top of the
mountain. We eventually arrived where the plane fell at about
“At the site, I saw a man making calls
with his GSM handset, but he had injury under his lower lip. He later
introduced himself as a Colonel in the Nigerian Army. He asked us (my brother
and I), what the name of the place was. We told him that he was in Benue State and Kwande Local
Government
“He quickly asked us to go for more people
to offer help to those who were still trapped in the crashed plane and were
alive. I used his phone to call my relation under the hill to inform our father
to mobilise people to climb up with axe and cutlass.
“When they arrived, we rescued one
engineer and a female Lance Corporal, which had a broken leg. When we asked the
Col., how he got out of the plane, when other wounded people were still trapped,
he said it was God who helped him.
“We saw so many people who had died in the
plane. The officer told us that some of those people who died were Generals and
top officers of the army. When it was getting dark, we had to send for food.
“I called my father at the bottom hill to
prepare food for the survivors and all of us. Some hours later, yam porridge
and stew was brought to us. We later made fire around the place to keep warm
because the place was extremely cold.
“One helicopter, which came in search of
the crashed plane, could not find the place because of the intense rain and fog
that formed the following morning. It was later in the afternoon, when the
weather was clear enough, that it was able to land to pick the corpses and the
survivors.”
Vanguard was informed by other eye
witnesses that the weather was bright and clear on the day the plane crashed.
Mr. Chia said he did not notice any form of smoke
oozing from the aircraft before the crash. “May be it was a mechanical fault,”
he said.
On the crash
On the crash proper, it was gathered that
the aircraft which normally flies at 10,000ft above see level, was hampered by
poor visibility leading to the accident.
As to why the Generals all died, one
source said: “You know in the military things are done according to seniority. So all the front seats were occupied by the GOCs
first, before other officers. That accounted for the survivors of the
junior officers who sat towards the tail of the plane.”
Bamali’s widows
The family of late general Nuhu Bamali has called on
Nigerians to pray for the repose of his soul and all those who died in the ill
fated plane crashed, saying they had wished to bury him in
In
a chat with Vanguard, the first wife of the late General, Hajiya
Fatima, described him as a very sincere and God-fearing man, saying he was a
very peace-loving husband.
“I
spent 30 years with him as his wife, and I can tell you that he was a very
faithful husband. He did not even behave like a typical military man. He was
very caring and never complained to me about anybody, since I married him.
“His daily schedule was from work to the
house and to the mosque because he was a very devout Muslim, ever willing to
assist his fellow human beings. He was not a worldly man at all. He was a great
husband and a father.”
On his burial in Abuja, she said: “I would
have loved to have my husband buried in Kano
according to the dictates of Islam, but what can I say, the Federal Government
says, they want to give him a national honour even in
death. I guess it is fate, there is nothing I can do. As you can see, we have been
asked to prepare to go to
The second wife who is nursing the
general’s youngest baby, seven-month-old Sunusi, Hajiya Amina Nuhu said “what can I say again, he is dead.
My husband was a very loving, generous man and God-fearing too. We didn’t know
he would leave us so soon, but what can we say, Allah has taken him, we accept
it in good fate and pray for his gentle soul to rest in peace."
Condolence from
President Obasanjo
yesterday received a condolence message from President Boni
Yayi of Republic
The message was delivered by his Special
envoy, Mr Issisou Kogui N’douru who is also the Beninois Minister of Defence.
Mr. N’ douru
said President Yayi who was away in
He also said that President Yayi prayed God to grant President Obasanjo
and the people of
The Beninois
Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Alia
Edgard was also on the delegation.
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VANGUARD -
They screamed for help, but there was
nothing we could do with bare hands * Laments teenager who first saw crashed
plane
STORY by Tser
Vanger, Makurdi
DETIMBIR Chia,
the teenager who was the first to locate the crashed military plane, did the
unimaginable by taking and using the handset of one of the victims to call his
father to ask him to mobilise more people for rescue
operations that yielded five survivors. He tells his story in this exclusive
chat with Saturday Vanguard, Wednesday. And on this day, he was donning a
T-shirt with the inscription, ‘Whatever it is, I
didn’t do it.’ Saturday Vanguard met and
had a chat with him. Excerpts:
Which school do you attend?
I attend
How did you notice last Sunday’s
military plane crash and what prompted you to go in search of it?
When we saw it pass over our
compound here, it was flying so low. We were worried and then became very
attentive and curious. It was not long after that we heard a loud bang on top
of the mountain. We suspected it had fallen up there. Immediately this
happened, my elder brother Ternenge and I, and other
four boys in the next compound resolved that we would go up there and see what
had happened. When we started to climb up the hill, at about
So, what was your reaction when you
got there and saw the accident?
When we got there, we saw two people
outside. One of them had a handset in his hand. My elder brother, Ternenge, urged me and I collected the handset from the man
and called our father to tell people to bring axes, hoes and cutlasses to the
hill in order to be able to rescue these soldiers.
Do you mean the soldier just gave
you the telephone without arguing with you?
Yes, it was not a matter of
struggling or arguing. I just took it from him because I was anxious about the
lives of the people.
When you people saw that the victims
were soldiers in army uniform, were you not afraid remembering that soldiers
sacked Zaki-Biam in 2001?
No, we were not afraid. We knew they
had been involved in an accident and there was no way they would shoot those who
had come to help. We were not thinking of what happened in Zaki-Biam
even though we knew about it. I had a clear conscience that I wanted to help
them. So, I wasn’t afraid.
Between the time you called your
father and when people started arriving up there to render help, how long did
it take and what were you people doing before help came?
It took about two hours because
people started arriving up there around 2. p.m. Before
they came, we were just praying and as some of them screamed, we were urging
them to have some patience because help would soon come. To tell you the truth,
they were in pains. Many were screaming for help. But there was nothing we
could do. We started shouting, calling on our people to hurry up.
When did government officials begin
to arrive here?
The first government people to
arrive were soldiers who, I think, came from
When he came here, Governor George Akume of
(Smiles) I feel very happy about it
and I thank God for what he has done for me. I thank the governor also because
he could have said nothing. But I would have been happier if all of them
(soldiers) were saved. When I saw that some died, I felt bad and I started
crying. My (condolences) go to the families of those who died, especially their
children.
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VANGUARD -
MILITARY PLANE CRASH: Worst hit!
Simon Ebegbulem,
*‘We lost four sons in one fell swoop’
THE remains of the 13 senior military officers who died in
the Dornier 288 plane crash last Sunday have been
committed to mother earth but the pain lingers in
Apart from the four generals lost by the state, the Donier 228 and its crew were said to have taken off from
the 81 Air Maritime Group in
The deputy governor almost betrayed emotions when he paid
condolence visits to the commander 4 Brigade Benin City, Brigade General. B.
A. Saliyuk and
his counterpart in the 81 Air Maritime Group, Air commodore Ikechukwu
Nnamani during which he described the incident as a
great misfortune that befell the state. Oghiadomhe who visited with the entire members of the state
executive council and political leaders from the state asserted that “we know
that this period is a sad day for the army because we have lost senior officers
which included our own GOC. This disaster is particularly more painful because
the pilot, the co-pilot and the aircraft were based here in
He went on: Two weeks ago when the Chief of the Army Staff visited the state, the GOC, Maj. Gen. Bamali was visible but today he and four of our sons are gone. We believe that in affairs like this we surrender totally to God. But I want to say that the state government wants a detailed probe of the incident. It is only by doing this that we can forestall future occurrences. We must find a way of stopping such unwarranted deaths”. And in a condolence letter addressed to the Chief of the Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Andrew Azazi and the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Paul Dike, signed by governor Lucky Igbinedion, “It is with a heavy heart that I write, on behalf of my self, the government and people of Edo State, to express our sympathy over the death of senior military officers in a plane crash last Sunday.
The tragic loss of the officers who represented the finest
in the Nigerian Military is a great calamity not only to their families but
also to the Armed forces of the federal
After reading the condolence message on behalf of the governor, Oghiadomhe, who is also from the Edo North district, led members of the state executive to visit the bereaved families.
BRAIMAH’S MUM: I can’t believe my son is dead
In tragic moments, no amount of words will assuage the pains of the bereaved especially a mother or father who lost a child. So it is for Hajia Alimatu Braimah, mother of General Braimah. She was a wreck when Sunday Vanguard visited her Jagbe Etsako residence. She cried profusely and would not want any body to console her. The 80- year-old mother who spoke through an interpreter lamented; “I do not have any thing to say I want my son back. I cannot believe what I am hearing but I know that my son is alive let them bring back my son”. She paused and asked a young lady beside her, “Is it true that General is dead? It is not true”. After this, assertion she kept mute , lost in thought. It was tears all the way for the people of Jagbe. The vice chairman of Etsako West Local Government Council, Alhaji Anex Musa, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard at the deceased compound lamented: “We cannot continue to cry because it is not some thing that cry will solve. It is a big blow to us as a people but you know we as Muslims we have taken the matter to God. But we pray that let such a disaster not happen to us again. How do we replace general?” No way. He is somebody that is very close to our hearts here because irrespective of his position in the country, he plays with every body. But what do we do, to blame God or what? We have to surrender to God that is all”.
‘Gen. Otubu did not deserve to die this way’
The late General Otubu’s in Uhonmora compound was quite a simple one. You could see a simple bungalow which he erected that is being occupied by his elder brother, Okhai Otubu and the grave where he buried his mother some time last year. 58 year-old Okhai was in a pitiable state when Sunday Vanguard visited. He wept like a baby when he was asked to comment on the deceased. Said he: “It is a shocking news to me because as long as I am concerned Sunny was a small boy and did not deserve to die this way. He was the bread winner of the family. Now he is gone who is going to feed me? He fed everyone of us. My life is shattered. What ever we wanted he provided for us. You can see I am here in the village, I take care of the house, I do not have any thing, so I do not know what to do. My brother was a very kind person, he never got angry, very understanding. All I can say is that I do not believe that Sunny is no more. If it is a dream, please I want to wake up from it. I need help from everybody. Sunny my brother just left me like that, oh God. Why?”
The Odionrukpa of Uhonmora (traditional ruler), Chief Martins Ajogbor described Otubu’s death as a great loss to the people of the area and the country as a whole. According to him, “I was shocked when we heard he was involved in the accident. As you can see we have all been thrown into mourning since the unfortunate incident. This is somebody that each time he came around he played with every body he does not discriminate. It is a personal loss to me and the entire community. I am not saying this just because he is no more but his kindness was incomparable”.
Gen. Adesunloye: Family can’t break news of death to mum
Last Thursday when Sunday Vanguard visited Lampese in Akoko-Edo, the ancestral home of Brig.-Gen. Adesunloye it was learnt that his aged mother was yet to be informed of her son’s death. Sunday Vanguard gathered that she was taken to a neighbouring village so that she would not notice what happened as scores of sympathizers throng the compound. According to a family member who simply identified her self as Lucy, “Mama is very old and any attempt for her to hear this will spell doom for the family because we may have to bury two persons at the same time. We took her to another village so that she will not notice anything”. Chairman of the council, Mr. Johnson Emeasalu, told Sunday Vanguard: “We are very proud of him. Though he died at his prime, his memories and legacies linger. It is often said that good people do not last and that is exactly what has happened in this case. But there is nothing we can do now than to surrender the whole thing to God’.
Anegbette in Etsako
Central, the ancestral home of Major General Ahmedu,
was not left out in the grief. A very close friend of the deceased, Col. Victor
Obaseki who is the senior special assistant to
Governor Lucky Igbinedion, revealed that the late
general had planned to retire from the army soon. “He called me just last week
and said he would be visiting
Mistake
Speaking also, the former provost Marshal of the Nigerian
Army, Brig. Gen. Idala Ikponmwen,
who was visibly shocked when he found that four of the generals were from
From all indications
it is lamentation every where in
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VANGUARD --
Boy who located crash site:I helped distressed generals; now I want to be a
soldier - Ben Agande
The rusty Tiv community of Mbakunu in Kwande Local Government Area of Benue last week caught world attention for a reason that its indigenes wished never happened. 13 senior officers of the Nigerian armed forces lost their lives in a fatal plane crash. For most indigenes of the community, though precious lives were lost in the tragic incidence, it helped to highlight the tragic neglect that they had endured for most of their existence.
For a fist time visitor, Mbakunu appears to be a world out of this world. Cut out of almost the entire state because of the deplorable state of the road, the GSM revolution in the country has become more poignant with its life saving impact when it helped to save five persons who survived the plane crash. But for the timely intervention of the GSM, even those who survived would have suffered the same fate as their colleagues. Apart from a secondary school founded in the early eighties by the state government, there is complete absence of modern facilities in the community.
Most of the inhabitants of the conical-shaped thatch houses are either illiterates or products of an attempted schooling which the
Even though he played a brave role in saving the lives of some of the soldiers, Detimbir Chia remains a very sad boy. In an interview with Sunday Vanguard, the brilliant fourteen year old junior secondary school two student said he would have been a happier person if there were available health facilities to keep alive those who initially survived the crash.
According to Detimbir, ‘if there was available medical facilities in the community, even the people who died later would have been saved because they were well enough when we got there almost four hours after the crash. While we mourn these people, I call on the state government and even the Nigerian army to set up clinics and even better school for my people here”.
Though he has never left his rusty village since he was born fourteen years ago, Detimbir, who is the last child of a family of nine, had remained focused on what he wants to be in life.
He told Sunday Vanguard: “I want to be a soldier when I finish secondary school. When I saw that the people who were involved in the crash were soldiers, I became more determined to help them because I felt that I was helping people who in the nearest future would be my colleagues”.
When Sunday Vanguard asked the boy why he was not afraid after seeing several dead people and such a gory sight, he answered: ‘I was not afraid because I felt that as human beings, we should be our brothers’ keeper. More over, they were in apparent pains and I felt that the only way to demonstrate what I have learnt in the church was to assist them by bringing them out’
In deed, the boy had inherited a sort of ‘never say never’ spirit from his father who dropped out of school because of lack of funds to complete his secondary education but was determined to ensure that his children do not face the same bleak future that he appeared to have been consigned to.
Out of his nine children with only subsistence farming to support, the elder Chia, who completed only primary seven and had to drop out because of his father’s insistence that he should remain at home and attend to the vast family farm land, was able to send four of his nine children to colleges of education so that ‘they will do better than me’
According to him, since he noticed the extra ordinary braveness and inquisitives of his last born, “I have been doing every thing to encourage him. For instance, if you tell him not to go to school for any particular reason, he would cry through out the day. And since he started going to his school, the only time he came second was when he was in JSS one. I felt that in him I have an opportunity to fulfill what I could not do. I have been proved right with his national and international recognition from what he has been able to do with the assistance to the crash victims”.
For the Mbakunu community, the crash is an opportunity ordained by God to draw attention to their neglect. While not gloating over the tragedy that befell some families as a result of the incident, a cross
section of people spoken to by Sunday Vanguard opined that the crash, tragic as it was, offered a unique opportunity for the name of their community to be written on the world map. According to one Gwaza Dominic Iorfa who claimed to be a student of Federal College of Education, Obudu in Cross Rivers state, the crash offered some opportunities.
“Most of us know about our governor only through listening to the radio. But the crash provided an opportunity for him to come not only to our community but to the village where, to most people, the issue of electricity is only a myth that exists in story books. We believe that the government would use the opportunity of this tragic crash to pay attention to communities that are remote and not only those close to the state capitals. If we had had better health facilities and government presence, perhaps
the tragedy would have been mitigated. But while we mourn the death of those gallant soldiers, we should also bear in mind the fact that we owe a responsibility to the people whose mandate we hold in trust. It could have been the governor or any other person that he holds in high esteem”, he said.
Indeed, the journey to the community where the plane crash occurred is enough confirmation of the frustration of residents. From Adikpo, the headquarters of Kwande local government where it occurred, Mbakunu should ordinarily not take more than twenty minutes to access. Although there is a foot path that has been upgraded to allow vehicles to pass, the journey is better suited for rugged four wheel drives that can access difficult terrains. The result is that for most people who do not have such luxury, the only option is to hire the ubiquitous okada from the local government headquarters that would take about an hour. It is indeed a fate that many voiceless Nigerians have been consigned to.
But for the coordinator of the community, James Haaga, the plane crash brought with it some good tidings an affirmation of the fact that they are peace loving people.
“Tell me any where in this country that there has been a plane crash and you have this number of survivors. We are known all over this land as a peace loving people and despite the shortcomings of other people, they were covered by our grace. That explains why you have the number of people that survived. It is because of our peaceful nature that despite the explosive nature of aviation fuel, the plane did not catch fire on impact”, he said.
Haaga maintained that the incident should be an avenue for soul searching for people in position of authority to have a rethink on their priorities.
The coordinator went on: “If we had a functional health facility here, perhaps we would have saved more souls. And if we had better schools, we would have had more than one Detimbir. The singular action of that boy’s father played a pivotal role in saving the lives of those people. If he had not gone to school, he certainly would not have been able to even make that vital call on the cell phone that proved to be the saving grace. It could be the military personnel today but it could be other people tomorrow. Who knows whose turn it would be next?”.
While the interest generated by the plane crash in the community gradually dies down, there appears to be a crisis of sorts brewing. For their gallantry, the chief of the army staff was said to have given half a million naira to the community. But that seems to be the problem as the sharing formula adopted appears to have torn the community apart. Sunday Vanguard gathered that the money was shared by those who were able to make it to the mountain top and helped in the evacuation of the victims of the crash. This does not seem to have gone well with other members of the community who did not benefit from the largesse.
A community member, Terver Akembe, accused some of his kinsmen of taking advantage of the situation to enrich themselves
“How can somebody say because I did not go to the mountain top I should not benefit from the national cake brought by the army?”, he asked this reporter in Tiv. We want all this thing to be resolved and after that we will ensure that the money that was brought by the army is used for the benefit of the community and not some few individuals. We have our ways of doing that” Akembe stated.
Asked whether the community would require some sacrifice to cleanse the land, the community coordinator said nothing of sort would be done. “We are Christians and the only sacrifice that we will do would be to pray for the repose of the souls of the departed ones. We have done our part as a law abiding people and to us the crash is God’s way of drawing attention to our existence and we believe that when the governor settles down, he would remember that we deserve more than we are getting. There would no sacrifice but we shall pray in our churches on Sunday (today) for the repose of the souls of the departed ones”, Haaga explained.
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Nigeraworld
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LAST SUPPER
The Achiruhu family in Abiriba, Ohafia Local Government Area of Abia
State, is yet to recover from the shock of the mysterious death of their
promising son, Mr. Uche Achiruhu
and his wife, Cecilia, after eating a meal of rice in their No 18,
Mr. Uche Achiruhu, a graduate of Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri, Imo State, who, like most young men from Abiriba, opted for business and runs a mobile phone shop on Cameroon road Aba, had rounded off the day’s business and went home to share the comfort and love of his family without knowing that death was lurking around.
His wife, had prepared a rice meal said to be the husband’s best dish, with the assistance of the maid, who had lived with them for sometime. The woman dished the food and asked the maid to serve it. The maid, it was gathered poisoned the food for the Achiruhus.
No sooner had they finished the meal than the couple started having some discomfort. Suspecting nothing, husband and wife resorted to prayer but became apprehensive when their kids, who partook of the meal with them started vomiting.
Mr. Achiruhu allegegly phoned his pastor to come over and pray with them as they were experiencing a “spiritual attack”. The pastor, Daily Sun learnt, asked them to pray while he prayed for them in his own house as it was already too late to come over to their house. Before dawn, the couple died and their kids were unconscious.
Recounting the incident to Daily Sun, Chief Kalu Ijekpa, head of the Achiruhu family in
He said that the only person who knew exactly what happened
was the 13-year-old maid, adding that the girl stayed indoors with the corpses
of her master and mistress throughout the night till about
He said that when interrogated, the maid claimed that all the ingredients they used in the cooking, including the meat, were from the stock in the house. She also said that the only person who quarreled with his boss were those who sunk the bore hole for him and who threatened to deal with them because of a little misunderstanding that developed.
“We decided to take the vomit and a sample of the water to NAFDAC, but was told they only have chemicals to test pure water and not borehole. We were about to exonerate her, considering her age, but the police insisted that she must go to the station to enter her report. It was there she gave the bombshell, confessing that she administered a poison in the food. She also revealed that she did not eat her own food as she was feeling dizzy and dozed off before she could take her food,” Chief Ijekpo said
Meanwhile, the police have arrested the cashier of the late
Mr. Achiruhu who brought the maid from Nkporo where she hails from. It was gathered that when the
couple died, the maid allegedly informed the cashier simply known as Blessing,
who allegedly contacted the relations of the deceased in one of the West
African countries before the relations in
At the Ogbor Hill Divisional Police headquarters on Azuka road, a senior police officer confirmed the incident and the arrests, but said the matter has been referred to Police headquarters, Umuahia for further investigation.
Confirming the story, the Abia State Police Commissioner, Mr. Sampson Wudah, said the police has started investigation into the matter.
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