Ohanaeze Youth Council has claimed that the 1967–1970 event in Eastern Nigeria was a genocide and not a war.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that the Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC) has declared that the tragic events that occurred in Eastern Nigeria between 1967 and 1970 were not a civil war but a systematic genocide against the Igbo people, accusing the Nigerian federal government and its foreign allies of orchestrating deliberate mass killings and economic destruction.
In a statement signed by Comrade Igboayaka O. Igboayaka, National President of the OYC, on October 28, 2025, the group referenced recent remarks by Senator Ned Nwoko, who recalled the atrocities committed in Asaba and other parts of present-day Delta State during the conflict.
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Quoting Senator Nwoko, the OYC said:
“We are all Igbos. Let me tell you what I know. I am a witness myself. During the war, many people were killed in Asaba and nearby communities. We were told that if we saw any Nigerian soldier, we should say we were from the Bini Kingdom, or we would be killed. That was the only way to survive.”
The group said Senator Nwoko’s testimony reflected the lived experience of many Anioma Igbos, who were forced to deny their ethnic identity to escape slaughter during what it described as a campaign of extermination.
“The killings, rapes, and displacement of innocent civilians, including women and teenagers, cannot be described as warfare but as a deliberate act of genocide,” the OYC said, drawing parallels between the events and the Nazi Holocaust.
According to the group, over 4.3 million Igbos were killed during the three-year conflict, which it said was prosecuted with the backing of Britain, the United States, Germany, Russia, and Egypt.
The OYC also criticized the post-war treatment of Igbos, particularly the £20 compensation policy, which, it said, robbed many of their life savings despite having millions in the bank before the conflict. It accused the Federal Government of failing to implement General Yakubu Gowon’s “3Rs” policy of Rehabilitation, Reconstruction, and Reconciliation in the Eastern Region, alleging that the benefits were diverted to the North and Southwest.
Quoting the late General Philip Effiong, the group recalled his 1970 warning that the “Biafran issue would resurface” if Igbos continued to face injustice and marginalization.
The OYC described the ongoing agitation for self-determination, led by Nnamdi Kanu and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), as “a prophetic fulfillment of Effiong’s statement,” insisting that the quest for Igbo self-preservation is “a divinely ignited spirit that no earthly power can extinguish.”
The group also warned President Bola Ahmed Tinubu against what it termed “tribal victimization” of the Igbo people and called for the unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu, stating that his continued detention is “highly provocative” to more than 50 million Igbo youths worldwide.
“To prevent Nigeria from relapsing into another 1967 crisis, President Tinubu must end the persecution of Ndigbo and release Nnamdi Kanu immediately,” the statement concluded.
