Today is Public Holiday in Anambra as Civil War Victims Receive Mass Burial

Black dresses and Black Hand wands or all kinds of sign to signify solidarity for the funeral service for the Nigerian civil war victims has taken center stage in Anambra state this morning.

 The Anambra State government and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) will this morning hold a burial/funeral ceremony for all Igbo who lost their lives in the Nigerian civil war, otherwise called the Biafran war.
The ceremony will hold at the Alex Ekwueme Square, Awka, Anambra State. In commemoration of the day, Anambra State governor, Chief Willie Obiano, has declared today a work-free day for the people to reflect on the events of that era. Consequent upon this, public and private institutions, including banks and schools, informed their clients of the development about a week ago.
The expectation according to government and APGA sources is that Ndigbo from all walks of life would storm Awka for the occasion. Rommy Onwuka, the Spiritual Head of Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), who originated the concept, told New Telegraph that the ceremony had become expedient to appease the land and the gods. He said from his finding, most children born after the war in Igboland are rascally and deviant in their attitude, apparently because the gods are angry.
Onwuka also attributed what he called the political travail of Ndigbo in Nigeria to the same source.
He said he had long suggested this ‘all important ritual’ to most governments in the South East, but that only Obiano showed any keen interest on the subject. Speaking on the development, the National Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh, who is the Anambra Central senatorial candidate of the party in next month’s general election, lauded the idea.
He said: “For us in APGA, we think we owe our brothers and sisters who lost their lives in that war that claimed millions of lives of our people a befitting funeral since the circumstances of the time did not allow for that.” He thanked Governor Obiano for accepting to facilitate ‘this necessary ritual’, and called on all Igbo to be part of the function, adding; “That is how the souls of these our brothers and sisters, who for no offence of theirs, died that we may survive, rest in peace.”

Adapted from New Telegraph