| Chapter : | Introduction |
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Tribunal reveal that the pogroms in Gombe, Gusau in the Sokoto Emirate, and many other northern cities were carried out with a significant level of official sanction from traditional political institutions in the North.
The mutually beneficial relationship between the British and the northern elite continued during the postcolonial period, and the deep distrust of the Igbo people harbored by both groups did not abate. British nationals in northern Nigeria in the 1960s made their own contributions to the crisis and did not hesitate to reveal which side they supported. During the pogroms of 1966, they played an active part at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in articulating the proposed elimination of the Igbo from the North. The report of the international committee that investigated the acts of genocide against the Igbo noted that the activities of the “Northern Nigeria students and their foreign (particularly British) instigators and collaborators at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria … [involved] deeply laid plans for the execution of genocide.”28 Some of the prominent British citizens involved were S. S. Richardson, deputy vice chancellor and director of the Institute of Administration at ABU; J. M. Lawrence, hall master at the Institute of Administration; Professor F. W. Sansome, head of the Department of Botany; and Dr. Eva Sansome, wife of Professor Sansome and reader in the Department of Botany. Others included Major A. D. F. Boyle, eastern manager in charge of university transport, security guards, and labor force; and R. B. Walker, superintendent of the zoology laboratory. Reports indicate that Richardson and Lawrence began to hold clandestine and exclusive meetings at night with northern Nigerian students, including Paul Anyebe, Murtala Aminu, Mohammed Arziki, Yameni Othman, A. B. Homkwap, and Mallam Maishanu, after January 15, 1966. These British nationals conducted a campaign of hate against Biafrans. It is reported that Major Boyle arranged for a university van (no. Z 5144) to be used by the estate foreman, Mallam Dosso, to transport thugs on multiple occasions from distant places to Samaru and elsewhere, “where they murdered Biafrans and looted their property.”29 Coincidentally, these incidents characterized by British complicity occurred after