Gowon’s injustice to Taiwo: Curse on Nigeria?

Sir: After reading the book titled “A gift of sequins: Letters to my wife, Victor Banjo” by Olayinka Omigbodun, the second daughter and third child of late Lt. Col. Victor Banjo, I began to think that the huge injustices done in Nigeria against ourselves in the past could be contributing to her downfall.

Taiwo is the wife of late Lt. Col. Victor Banjo. She is a Sierra Leonian Creole but with parental background traceable to Nigeria. She had four children as at January 15, 1966 when Nigeria’s first military coup took place. One of the aftermaths of that coup was the arrest and detention of Victor Banjo by the late General Aguiyi Ironsi, then Head of State. Neither Victor nor his wife was told the reason for the arrest, which later became imprisonment first at Ikoyi prisons and later Ikot Ekpene prisons. Victor later found himself at Enugu with his friend, Col. Odumegwu Emeka Ojukwu and was automatically became part of the Biafran army upon the declaration of the Biafran Republic by Ojukwu on 30th July 1967. Victor was not in support of the secession, he was tried by a tribunal set up by Ojukwu. The tribunal convicted him and he was publicly executed in Enugu March 1967.

How about his young family? Taiwo was left to shoulder the huge responsibility of raising the four children left behind by Victor. The soldiers that arrested Victor on 17th January, 1966 were led by his friend, the then Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon and carried away his safe containing “two life insurance policies, birth, baptismal, academic and marriage certificates, land papers and money”. Under late General J.T.U Ironsi, Victor was never tried for any offence. Meanwhile his wife was passing through excruciating difficulty raising four kids all alone. She appealed and wrote to Ironsi severally for the release of the safe to her, all to no avail. When now General Yakubu Gowon (rtd) became the Head of State, she rekindled hope that the safe could be released, so she sought and wrote to Gowon severally too, all to no avail. The heaviness of children upbringing, the public execution of his husband and the non-release of the safe all combined to inflict heavy depression on her which later took her life in March 1997. If this story is true, can it be fair?

I strongly believe that if it is true, Gowon should publicly apologise and seek immediate remedy to the injustice done to Victor Banjo’s wife and children. Otherwise, the blood of Victor shed on the execution ground in Enugu and the thousand cries of his late wife may continue to hunt Nigeria and work against the unity of Nigeria which Gowon prays daily. If it is not true, the author of the referenced book must publicly apologise to Gowon for painting the picture that Gowon was unfair to Taiwo and the book withdrawn from circulation.
Okachikwu Dibia wrote from Abuja