PHOTOS: ADF, Ohaneze, others pay respect to Achuzia in Asaba Day of Tributes

Frontline sociopolitical Igbo organization, Alaigbo Development Foundation (ADF) was part of organizations which paid tributes to late Biafran general, Late Chief Joseph Achuzia in Asaba last Thursday.

The ADF was led by its president, Professor Uzodinma Nwala who presented the first tribute to the fallen general.

Speaking at the solemn ceremony, which was well attended by Asaba people, including a representative of the king (Asagba of Asaba), Nwala recounted how his class in 1967 was the last to graduate just before the break of the Biafran war.
He also recalled the many victories of Achuzia against the enemy army, and how he refused to surrender at the end if the war in 1970.

Also in his speech, Bishop Udeze Anibogu who is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the ADF spoke in glowing terms about how in serving as an aide to the leader of Biafra, Late Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu, he encountered Achuzia.

“He was an extraordinary soldier, and usually came to see Ojukwu in the early hours, before dawn”, he recalled, adding that the only person he remembered General Ojukwu ever escorting to his car, was Col Achuzia, and that told how important Achuzia was to the war.

In his ‘thank you message’ to the organizers of the event, a son to the late Biafran hero and civil war veteran, Simeon Achuzia said he would continue to venerate his father for providing direction to all his children and those around him.
He said his father was harsh and yet compassionate and providing education and direction to him and his siblings.

He described his father as “harsh, but compassionate and an educator. He put me straight. For us his children, he was just a dad. For my cousins he was Uncle Joe while for my auntie, he was Bros.

“My father was a man of many parts. When I was born, he was an engineer. As we grew, he became a business man and later a militia and then a soldier. And he was very successful in all the endeavors. I will never stop venerating him,” he said.
Others who spoke include President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, Prof. Epiphany Azinge, Chief Emma Okocha, Chief Chukwuma Okorocha among others.