Lagos Rumours Of Command Changes

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31985, 12 May 1969, Page 13

Lagos Rumours Of Command Changes

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright)

LAGOS, May 11.

Federal Nigerian Army commanders will be removed from the civil war fronts and assigned to new tasks at the supreme military headquarters in Lagos, according to usually reliable sources in Lagos. A meeting of the Supreme Military Council is> considering proposals to appoint new officers to wage the war against secessionist Biafra that has now lasted almost two years, the sources say.

Official sources, however, declined to confirm or deny that there will be changes in the field commands.

The present commanders in the field are: Colonel Mohamaed Shuwa (First Division, based at Enugu), Colonel Abraham Haruna (Second Division, Onitsha) and Colonel Benjamin Adekunle (Third Division, Port Harcourt). The Nigerian military Head of State (MajorGeneral Yakubu Gowon) called the council meeting to discuss the recent loss to Biafran troops of the strategic town of Owerri.

The Associated Press reports from Orlu, Biafra, that the Biafran Government claims that 800 Nigerian soldiers were killed after three days of fighting, 25 miles south of Owerri. A military communique also claims Biafran successes in the main Port Harcourt road sector, and speaks of minor gains in the Umuahia sector.

It says Biafran troops pushed back the Nigerians four miles in the Azumini area and inflicted heavy casualties.

A four-man international team of observers in Nigeria has called on the Federal Government to give priority to the rehabilitation of war victims. Observers’ Report In an interim report covering two months of visits to war sectors, representatives of Canada, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom say that refugees they met at Calabar were anxious to return home as quickly as possible. “As refugee camp life saps the refugee’s will for sels reliance, it is the opinion of the observers that rehabilitation of refugees should be undertaken as early as possible,” the report says. The observer team, and representatives of the United Nations Secretary-General (U Thant) and the Organisation for African Unity, were invited by the Federal Government last year to investigate Biafran charges of genocide in the war. The observers express satisfaction with the relief activities of the' National Rehabilitation Commission and commend the conduct of Federal troops, who, they say, are well disciplined. But they urge the Federal Government to expedite the

completion of a prisoner-of-war camp being built in Lagos to eliminate shortcomings, which include overcrowding in a maximum security prison at Kiriklri, which at present houses refugees. The observers say, however, that they saw no evidence or wanton neglect in their tours of Federal prison-of-war camps. They note that there had been a recent decline in Biafra’s charges of indiscriminate bombing by Federal forces, and attribute this to “the restraining effect” of new operational orders given to the Nigerian Air Force.