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From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
The Asagba of Asaba, Obi (Prof) Chike Edozien, has renewed the call on the Federal Government to establish a university in Asaba as part of measures to compensate for the October 7, 1967, genocide.
Prof Edozien said the request was a modest one compared to the emotional and psychological impacts of the massacre in which thousands of Asaba men were mowed down by federal troops during the civil war.
The monarch, who spoke yesterday at the 54th memorial anniversary of the horrific murder, recalled that he told former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, on the need for the university as far back as 1995.
Saying that Gowon who was in power when the genocide was committed promised to support the agitation, the royal father, however, lamented that nothing has been heard from the present administration. He noted that he had also briefed Vice President Yemi Osinbajo about it.
“We are calling on the Federal Government to honour what the former Head of State said. Gowon was the Head of State when this massacre took place. The Federal Government should build a university in Asaba. Our request is very modest in comparison to the pains of the massacre,” he said.
In a keynote address, former President of the United Nations Security Council, Prof Joy Ogwu, re-echoed the pressure from the international community on the Federal Government to admit its 1967 genocide and crime against the people Asaba and humanity in general.
