Leadership Editors, September 6, 2010
by Ali Alkali And Lawal Sabo Ibrahim, Abuja
Nigerians must not let Mbu or anyone else attempt to revise history before their very eyes “just to cover cold blooded murderers and cowards” that killed the late Tafawa Balewa and other prominent Nigerians.
This was the position of the former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, in an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP yesterday night in Abuja.
Reacting to a press interview granted by Chief Matthew Mbu published yesterday, Kayode said though he considers the former like a father, it would be quite inappropriate to allow him to propagate untruth by saying that the former prime minister died of asthma.
Mbu had submitted in the interview with a national daily that the late prime minister actually died of asthma and not killed by soldiers in the wake of the first military coup in 1966.
“It is simply not true to say that Ifeajuna did not kill Tafawa Balewa, and that the man just died of an asthma attack after being abducted. The man was shot and his body was mutilated, and left to decompose,” Kayode said.
He averred that such claims coming from people like Mbu, if allowed to subsist, could cause monumental damage to the country’s history, especially as the younger generation would take these historical distortions as nothing but the truth.”
According to him, after the body of Balewa was found, it was taken to Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) and an autopsy was conducted by the head of the pathology department in that hospital.
“The findings were that he had been shot to death. Dr. Moses Majekodunmi, who was the minister of health at the time, can confirm this,” he insisted.
Kayode recalled that as foreign minister of Biafra, Mbu was only trying to use the name of another sympathiser of the cause to clean up the image of cold-blooded and ruthless murder by the name of Major Ifeajuna, who was one of the most prominent officers of the Biafran army.
“The truth is that Ifeajuna’s hands were dripping with Nigerian blood before he died and for anyone to now try to absolve him of the murder of Tafawa Balewa or anyone else that he killed is sad and unfortunate,” he assured