Emeka Esogbue

 HOW OMU IFESIMEHONE REPELLED MURTALA MUHAMMED AND SAVED ONICHA-ONA FROM THE CIVIL WAR MASSACRE By Emeka Esogbue What is underreported even by Anioma writers of the Nigerian Civil War are roles played by the Omus of the Anioma people in preventing their communities from the massacres tied to the 1967-1970 civil war. It is this perspective of Omiship that this Author is finding interest in documenting Anioma history enthusiasts. The gruesome massacres carried out in the defunct Asaba Division but concentrated in Asaba were repellently frightful. In Igbodo, it was a combination of the old and young. In Isheagu, the concentration was on the aged, especially the chiefs and traditional leaders of the community, and in Asaba, it sweepingly involved the old and young with the youths s targets. Subsequently, Asaba was denied viable young men for a very long time.  That of Ibusa, a community, only 6 miles from victimized neighbouring Asaba, was more of terrorism, with Nigerian soldiers...