Ifeanyi Ejiofor, who is the lead counsel to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has told governors in the South-East region to declare May 30 as a public holiday.
He said the date should be declared a public holiday in the southeast in honour of over five million South Easterners, who were killed during the Nigerian Civil War, which lasted from July 6, 1967, to January 15, 1970.
Ejiofor made the call in a statement on Thursday in which he reacted to the May 30 sit-at-home declared by IPOB in the region.
According to him, making the date a public holiday would call the federal government’s attention to one of the region’s peculiar issues, just as those in the Southwest did when they set aside June 12 as a public holiday to commemorate the anniversary of the annulled 1993 Presidential election, adjudged to have been won by the late MKO Abiola.
He added that the move would also go a long way in healing the wounds of the civil war.
He said and quote, “we must remember the massacre of over 6,000 men, mainly residents of Asaba, who were gruesomely killed at Obosowe Asaba in present-day Delta State between October 4 and 7, 1967. Nigeria is under a moral obligation to acknowledge this tragedy, as it was not the making of Asaba.
“It is important to note that no matter how long history is hidden, it will always reveal itself on true platforms. Unfortunately, the story of post-war reconstruction, reintegration, and reconciliation has remained a ruse. These three Rs must go hand in hand for a full healing process, but the reverse has been the case