‘We Were Told He Was Dead’: Victor Banjo’s Daughter on Ojukwu’s Execution Order

Professor Olayinka Omigbodun shared a harrowing account of how her family learned of her father’s fate during the Nigerian Civil War. Lt. Col. Victor Adebukunola Banjo was a Sandhurst-trained officer who joined Biafra and led troops in the Midwest invasion. Professor Omigbodun recalled that her family was in Kenema, Sierra Leone, when a letter arrived from one of Banjo’s brothers. Her mother gathered the children and quietly said, “Oh, daddy has gone to be with Jesus.” The uncertainty and sudden loss shattered their world. She described her father as an “unusual man” who provided well enough that their mother need not work. After his execution by firing squad on September 22, 1967, she watched her mother face sleepless nights and constant prayer as she struggled to care for four children. Banjo’s falling out with Biafran leader Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu led to treason charges and a military tribunal. His execution remains a painful reminder of the personal costs of that conflict.

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