Denge Onoh condemns Yakubu Gowon in heated civil war row

Denge Onoh’s renewed Gowon apology call escalates as ex-lawmaker urges Yakubu Gowon to apologise over civil war comments.

Former member of the Enugu State House of Assembly and ex-South-East spokesman for President Bola Tinubu, Denge Onoh, has called on former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, to issue an apology to the Igbo over his recent remarks on civilian casualties during the Nigerian Civil War.

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Onoh made the demand in a strongly worded statement issued in Enugu, where he described Gowon’s comments as a troubling minimisation of the human suffering experienced during the conflict.

The controversy stems from an interview granted by Gowon on Arise Television, during which he recalled post-war visits to former Biafran territories. He stated that he observed dark marks on palm trees, which he was told were bullet impacts, suggesting that many shots fired by Nigerian forces struck trees rather than people.

Reacting to the remarks, Denge Onoh said the narrative was inconsistent with established historical records and widely documented accounts of the war, describing it as a deeply sensitive and painful period in Nigeria’s history.

He argued that the Nigerian Civil War, fought between 1967 and 1970, resulted in an estimated three million deaths, largely driven by starvation, disease, displacement and military operations across the South-East.

According to Onoh, attempts to downplay the scale of suffering risk reopening old wounds and undermining the memory of victims of what he described as a devastating national tragedy.

“It ignores the well-documented humanitarian crisis, including widespread kwashiorkor among children, mass displacement and the devastating human cost of prolonged fighting,” Onoh stated in a sharply critical tone.

The remarks have triggered renewed debate among political observers and commentators, with calls for restraint and sensitivity in discussing one of Nigeria’s most painful historical chapters.

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Denge Onoh’s call for an apology from Yakubu Gowon has continued to gain attention, fuelling renewed debate over how the civil war is remembered and interpreted.

Mariam Balogun