Igbos demand reparations

Leaders of the Oha-na-Eze Ndi Igbo organisation say they want Nigeria's federal government to pay 8.6 trillion naira (US $87 billion) in compensation for the 1967-70 Biafra war and the years of neglect which, they charge, have followed it, news reports said on Tuesday.

The demand by the Igbo leaders was contained in a petition sent to the Oputa Panel of Human Rights Violations set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo. The petition's signatories include former Nigerian Vice President Alex Ekwueme.

Reuters reported that the Igbos said their political exclusion had reached new levels under the administration of Obasanjo, who had commanded the division of the federal armed forces that led the final assault which crushed the Igbo secession bid in 1970.

The `Post Express' newspaper reported that the organisation also called for the restoration of "Igbo lands" which it claimed were carved up into Rivers and Akwa Ibom states. Another demand is for the federal government to restore all bank accounts, with accrued interest, of Igbos who held deposits in Biafra as at 29 May 1967. "Marginalisation of Ndi Igbo, if allowed to foster in Nigeria, will resolve itself autonomously in the fullness of time, but not without untold bloodshed and social disruption," the newspaper quoted the leaders as saying in their petition.