Former Tinubu Spokesman Reacts Strongly to Gowon’s Civil War Remarks

Keep up with the latest news and be part of our weekly giveaways and airtime sharing; follow our WhatsApp channel for more updates. Click to Follow us

Former member of the Enugu State House of Assembly and ex-South-East spokesman for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Denge Onoh, has stated that former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, should apologise to the Igbo people.

Onoh criticised Gowon over his recent comments regarding civilian casualties during the Nigerian Civil War, describing the remarks as a dangerous minimisation of the human tragedy associated with the conflict.

Gowon had, during an interview on Arise Television, said that after visiting former Biafran territories following the war, he observed black spots on palm trees and was informed that they were bullet marks.

The former military leader reportedly concluded from the observation that most of the bullets fired by the Nigerian army hit palm trees rather than people.

Reacting in a statement, Onoh said the claim contradicted historical accounts, eyewitness testimonies and international reports on the civil war, insisting that the remarks failed to reflect the true scale of suffering experienced during the conflict.

According to him, the war fought between 1967 and 1970 claimed an estimated three million lives, with many deaths resulting from starvation and disease linked to the federal blockade, in addition to civilian casualties caused by bombings, combat operations and reprisals.

“Reducing these horrors to bullets harmlessly striking palm trees does not withstand basic scrutiny.

“It ignores the well-documented humanitarian crisis, including widespread kwashiorkor among children, mass displacement and the devastating human cost of prolonged fighting across the South-East,” Onoh said.

Please don’t forget to “Allow the notification” so you will be the first to get our gist when we publish it. 
Drop your comment in the section below, and don’t forget to share the post.