Civil war veteran Joseph Achuzia passes on at 90

One of the few living civil war veterans and Biafran hero, Col. Joseph Achuzia (rtd), has died at the age of 90.

Achuzia, who was one of the soldiers who left the Nigerian Army to join the Biafran Army in May 1967, died on Monday at the Federal Medical Centre, Asaba, Delta State.


It was gathered that he was briefly sick before his passage.

One of his sons, Mr. Benedict Onyeka Achuzia, confirmed his demise to journalists in Asaba, saying that his father passed on at 8am.

The late Achuzia held the influential traditional title of Ikemba of Asaba Kingdom and was said to have fled the Nigerian Army to the South-East fearing anti-Igbo sentiment, and joined forces with the late Dim Odimegwu Ojukwu.

Onyeka said, “He died around 8 this morning (Monday). It was something we never expected, but it happened. He was 90 years old. It’s just a sad incident.

“My father was the best dad ever. I was so sad when he gave up. Even when he was being taken to the mortuary, I couldn’t believe it.

“Shortly before his death, he was smiling, but we never knew he was going. May his soul rest in perfect peace.”

The late Col. Achuzia (rtd.) was born in 1929. He was a Major in the Biafran Army during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967 to 1970.