Nigeria pays ex-rebels’ pensions

Nigeria has paid the pensions of the former leader of the Biafran secessionist force and 63 rebels as part of efforts to heal wounds from the bloody civil war 40 year ago.

Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu’s pension was stopped after his dismissal from the Nigerian army in 1967 for leading more than 40 million ethnic Igbos in the southeast of the country to secede from the rest of Nigeria.

More than one million Igbos died, mostly from starvation and disease, during the 30-month civil war before the Biafran forces surrendered in January 1970.

Nigerian Defence Minister Yayale Ahmed presented the cheques to Ojukwu and 63 Biafran soldiers or their relations at a ceremony in Abuja yesterday, officials said.

“This event marked the culmination of the re-integration process that started the very moment the civil war ended,” the minister said, recalling the “No victor, No vanquished” policy of the Nigerian government after the war.

“That our highly revered and distinguished leader and brother, Odumegwu-Ojukwu, is here in person to collect his benefit is a testimony to the fact that those who sacrificed their lives on both sides are not only remembered, but are indeed accorded due recognition and respect,” he added.