Professor Olayinka Omigbodun, the daughter of the late Nigerian Army commander Lt. Col. Victor Adebukunola Banjo, has revealed how her family found out about her father’s execution.
According to Naija News, during the Nigerian Civil War, Biafran leader Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu gave the order to execute Banjo.
In an open conversation with Edmund Obilo on the State of Affairs podcast, Omigbodun described how her family in Kenema, Sierra Leone, first learned of the news.
“We learned that Ojukwu had put our father to death while we were in Sierra Leone,” she stated. We were informed that my father had been slain while we were in Kenema. My mother brought us all together and said, “Oh daddy has gone to be with Jesus,” after one of his brothers wrote a letter to her, though it was unclear.
Omigbodun called her father a “unusual man,” pointing out that he had supported the family so well that he didn’t even want their mother to work, preferring to rely on his savings.
She remarked, “This was the kind of person he was when he was alive.” The family’s mother had to gather herself and care for the children after his passing, despite his financial support, underscoring the conflict’s long-term personal cost.
The emotional toll on her mother, who “was not sleeping at night,” was another memory she shared. She would constantly pray and ask, “Lord, what am I going to do?” Four kids…
One of Nigeria’s first military leaders, Lt. Col. Victor Banjo, was a Sandhurst-trained officer who joined the Biafran side during the 1967 secession after serving in the Nigerian Army.
He lost Ojukwu’s favor despite his early achievements, which included commanding Biafran forces in the assault of the Midwest. Banjo and other officers were charged with preparing a coup, found guilty of treason by a military court, and put to death by firing squad on September 22, 1967.
