Brig Benjamin Adekunle Is Not A Hero..Igbo House Of Reps Members Insist

SOME members of the House of Representatives, on Tuesday, protested against a special session in honour of late Nigerian Civil War hero, Brigadier-General Benjamin Adekunle (retd), as it resulted in a drama of sort in the green chamber.

Lawmakers of Igbo extraction, particularly protested against the House’s resolve to pay tribute to him.

The House Majority Leader, Honourable Mulikat Adeola-Akande, had risen under motion of urgent public importance to officially inform the House on the demise of the war general and subsequent move to eulogise the man, who hails from Ogbomoso, Oyo state.

Adekunle, who died on September 13, played a major role in the Nigerian Army’s defeat and recapturing of the breakaway Republic of Biafra, from 1967 till 1970.

When the Speaker, Honourable Aminu Tambuwal, however, called on his colleagues to observe a minute silence in his honour, both Honourables Arua Arunsi and Udo Oluchi Ibeji, refused to stand as expected, but sat in defiance to the Speaker’s directive.

Honourable Ibeji, in protest against the minute silence for the late general stoutly shouted “I don’t care if he is dead or alive,” referring to Adekunle.

It was, however, the speaker, who saved the day before a minute silence was observed in the late general’s honour.