By Ikeugonna Eleke
Biafran war veterans have accused the five governors in the South Eastern Zone of Nigeria of abandoning them despite their efforts to protect the zone during the 30-month long civil war.
The veterans who spoke during a flag off of a political movement, People’s Restoration Movement (PRM) in Awka, the Anambra State capital, last Monday, called on politicians in the zone to come to their aid by rehabilitating them as they had been incapacitated for long, since after the war.
The Commander of the Veterans in Anambra State, Rtd. Major General Emmanuel Onwuegbuna, who spoke on behalf of the veterans, said it was appalling that the people they fought for, including their children, that ought to consider their plight, had abandoned them on getting to power.
‘We demand that all the state governors, lawmakers and other political leaders in the zone must come together to rehabilitate us.
‘We fought for them to live. But instead of them to reciprocate the kind gesture by providing us with welfare packages, including medical care and shelter, they abandoned us to our fate.
‘If after this event we don’t hear from them, we will mobilize our members who are alive to stop them from attaining any political position.
‘We will rather support those who can cater for our needs. We have started gathering data of our members. All of us will join forces with People’s Restoration Movement (PRM) to vote out any government or political party in power at any level that is against us,’ he stated.
He said it was rather painful that while the Nigerian Government was taking care of war veterans who fought on the federal side, those who fought on the Biafran side were abandoned.
He also blamed the Nigerian Government for reneging on its promise to reconstruct, rehabilitate and reintegrate the South Eastern Zone after General Yakubu Gowon announced a no-victor-no-vanquished stand at the end of the war.
