The journalist Randolf Baumann interviewed Benjamin Adekunle in Igweocha during the Nigeria-Biafra War for Stern Magazine, and the interview was published on August 18, 1968 as follows:
"Randolf Baumann: What is happening to the European Humanitarian Assistance programs which were authorized through your government?
Benjamin Adekunle: In the section of the front that I rule—and that is the whole south front from Lagos to the border of Kamerun—I do not want to see the Red Cross, Caritas Aid, World Church delegation, Pope, Missionary, or UN delegation.
Baumann: Does that mean that the many thousands of tons of food that are stored in Lagos will never get to the refugee camps in your section of the country?
Adekunle: You are a sharp one, my friend. That’s exactly what I am saying.
Baumann: But you said yourself that most of the refugees in the part you captured are not Ibos.
Adekunle: But there could be Ibos among them. I want to avoid feeding a single Ibo as long as this whole people have not given up yet.
Baumann: What are your troops doing when they march into a town around Port Harcourt, an area where most of the farmers are not Ibos?
Adekunle: We aim at everything that moves.
Baumann: What will your troops do when you get to the Ibo heartland that is, to the place populated by Ibos only?
Adekunle: There we will aim at everything even if it is not moving.
Baumann: Are you racist?
Adekunle: You should know exactly where racists are. There is no such thing as racism in Nigeria.
Baumann: Do you sometimes feel sympathy for the Ibos?
Adekunle: I have learned a word from the British, which is “sorry”! That’s how I want to respond to your question. I did not want this war but I want to win this war. Therefore I have to kill the Ibos. Sorry!"
0 Comments