40 years after, group remembers Ugep Black Wednesday

IN a bid to set the records straight, the Umor
Otutu socio-cultural organisation has commenced
the process of unearthing the truth surrounding
the 1975 massacre of dozens of persons in Ugep
community in Cross River State by a contingent
of Nigerian soldiers, who went berserk over the
death of one of their own.
President General of the group, Pastor Ben
Arikpo, who addressed reporters in Abuja on the
40th anniversary of the 1975 Ugep Massacre,
described that day as a black Wednesday, where
citizens in Ugep were massacred by soldiers over
an offence they did not commit.
Arikpo gave the assurance that members of the
association would do all within their powers to
obtain the white paper, based on the report of
the late Justice Okorobidu-led panel of inquiry set
up by the late Head of State, Maj. Gen Murtala
Muhammed. He believed the report of the panel
might be in a government archive somewhere
between Calabar, Enugu, Jos and Lagos.
He explained that the initiative was borne out of
the need to not only seek compensation for the
family of those affected but also pacify frayed
nerves in the community required to ensure
lasting peace and security in the polity.
Going down memory lane, Arikpo said the attack
came after an erroneous assumption that the
people of Ugep had killed a soldier, who was
serving in the Army barracks that was then at
Ugep. “Acting on the unsubstantiated allegation,
soldiers from the barrack attacked the town at
night, killing, raping and setting houses ablaze.”
From official report, 13 people were killed, 100
injured and 7,500 houses burnt. But the claim in
the official report was, however, debunked by the
people, who claimed the casualty figures were
under-reported.