Ojukwu Betrayed My Dad, Killed Him - Olayinka Omigbodun, Victor Banjo’s Daughter:

Fifty years ago, the late Lt. Col Victor Banjo, the 16th Nigerian to be commissioned into the Nigerian Army, was publicly executed reportedly on the orders of the late Ikemba Nnewi, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, who was then the Military Head of the secessionist Biafra Republic. He was an Ijebu from Ogun State but died fighting on the Biafran side during the Nigerian civil war. Banjo was before his death, in detention on allegations that he took part in the January 1966 coup, was released by Ojukwu when the war broke out and convinced to lead part of the Liberation Army, which went on the offensive against the Nigerian Army and got as far as Benin, in present day Edo State. Banjo was to declare another republic upon having Benin under his control. In this interview with Dare Odufowokan, Assistant Editor, his daughter, Mrs. Olayinka Omigbodun, a Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Ibadan, recalls how Banjo’s young family was thrown into disarray upon his arrest and detention. She also lamented what she described as the unjust treatment meted out to her father while explaining why she thinks Ojukwu killed his friend, her father. How does it feel remembering the events that led to the reported execution of your father (Lt. Col. Victor Banjo)? First and foremost, I must express gratitude to God for keeping us alive and well all these years. Despite the fact that we lost our father while still so young, God has kept us to see this day. We are four children, two boys, two girls. I am the third. We’ve all been able to go through school and acquire degrees. All of us are alive and healthy. I thank God for the kind of parents he gave me. Our father died 50 years ago and our mum 20 years ago. She was a widow for 30 years before she also went to be with the Lord. I am proud of them. It was 30 years of struggle and difficulty, but with our late mother determined to fulfil her promise to our dad, we made it. Why do you think he did that to his friend? He conveniently blamed Banjo and three other men. Lt. Col Ifeajuna, Alele and one other for sabotaging the Biafran efforts. He needed to tell the people who were losing faith in him something new as a reason for the defeats. His fear about the imminent fall of Enugu was also driving him to do something. So, on trumped up charges, my father and three other men were tried by a Kangaroo court and killed by firing squad in 1967. The trial did not reveal any evidence linking Banjo with any act of treason against Ojukwu or the Biafran government. In fact, it took a second military tribunal to convict Banjo because the first tribunal stated that the evidence presented to it was insufficient to prove Banjo’s guilt in the case. Unsatisfied and not ready to let my father off the hook, Ojukwu constituted another tribunal speedily. Apparently, it was a clear case of sacrificing someone as a scapegoat because while my father was looking forward to assisting Ojukwu further with the Biafran war in spite of the huge risk and sacrifice involved for him as a person, Ojukwu was looking for a way of implicating him for sabotage so as to retain the control of the region. Ojukwu betrayed my father by killing him. And you don’t think his not agreeing in the secession was a reason he got into trouble with Ojukwu? Well, they were friends and friends disagree. They probably must have disagreed on that before then because my father never hid his patriotism. But again, I was told that hours after the execution, Enugu fell. I am a Professor. Human beings are very fickle. We are wont to always look for excuses. For scapegoats; so, my father was simply the sacrifice. He knew my father was up for one Nigeria. Even before drafting him into the war on his side, he knew my father was a patriot who wanted one united Nigeria. After the war we left Nigeria for Sierra Leone but my mother brought us back because my father, in his letters, had insisted we must be raised as Nigerians. So, his patriotism was never in doubt. Ojukwu merely executed him to cover up his own failures as a leader of the war. But Gowon later became the Head of State. Why didn’t he release your dad? After Gowon was installed as Head of State, my father made several overtures to him for his release. But Gen. Gowon refused to release him even though he knew he was not part of the coup. The only concession he gave was that Banjo could be transferred to a prison in Lagos if he so wished. My father rejected the offer. Even when my father wrote Ironsi from prison in Ikot Ekpene, on June 1, 1966, he was wondering what on earth he did to warrant being imprisoned. He faulted the way he was being treated and asked for justice, fairness and loyalty from Ironsi as a loyal officer. He saw his detention as a grievous crime against him. He pleaded his innocence and asked to be released. There is really no basis for tagging him as a ‘coupist’. I sincerely think setting the records straight is one of the things Nigeria, and the likes of Gen. Gowon, owe us as his family and children. It is very painful for us not knowing how he ended really. Not knowing where his remains are. Not even the exact date of his death. We only read in the book of a foreign journalist who had witnessed his execution of the date and circumstances. Beyond that, there is little or nothing to prove how he ended. This is very sad.

When Ojukwu released him, why didn’t he leave the country instead of joining the Biafran Army? He made effort. But his papers were with gen. Gowon which he refused to give him. And I read somewhere that Ojukwu, who wanted someone that will be counselling him, convinced him to stay. He must have really been in conflict at that time whether to stay or join us abroad. He loved his country, so I am not surprised he chose to stay. Ojukwu was his friend, don’t forget. It was tough like I said growing up without him. Though my mother ensured we survived the tough times, there was a big drop in our social standing and our finances. I remember being in school and some children were served milk while we couldn’t afford it. We just watched while others drank the milk. Looking back now, I could imagine what it was like. We had to live on the meagre resources my mum could garner. This is why we are saying the authorities should do the right thing by correcting the impression about our father, we need an official statement on him. He is N16, meaning he was the 16th officer commissioned into the Nigerian Army. He deserved to be better treated. All we knew and still know is that he was arrested on Monday, January 17, 1966 when he went to work. My mother and I were sad to watch the heroic reception given Ojukwu, the man who killed my father in 1982 when he returned from exile. He also got a state burial upon his death in 2011. We couldn’t understand what manner of country this is. How did your mother cope with the situation back then? My mother died 20 years ago, but before her death, she made some requests and those remains our request even today. These requests are in a letter my mother wrote to Gen Yakubu Gowon on May 31, 1972, two years after the civil war ended. Gen. Gowon was then the Head of State. She requested the return of my father’s safe, removed personally by Gen. Gowon from 21B Cooper Road Ikoyi on Monday, January 17, 1976. In the safe were some vital documents and belongings of my father and his immediate family. We want that back because it will go a long way in helping us catch up on those times. She also asked for the return of some land papers and money as well as my father’s cars namely a Mercedez Benz WAL 720 and another car. She wrote the number too. She also asked for the death certificate of my father. So, we call on the authorities to help out with these so we can have these things to cherish about our dear father who was unjustly sacrificed by this country. And personally, I have a lot of unanswered questions. Why is my father still being tied up with the January 1966 coup? Why was my father arrested at all? Even when it was clear to the then Head of State, that my father wasn’t part of the coup, why did he choose to leave my father in prison? Gen. Gowon took the steel cabinet from our home, why hasn’t he returned the cabinet? When exactly did my father die? Where are his remains? I seek answers to these questions. And someone like Gen Gowon is still around to help out with answers to these questions and many more.