How did your father die, and how did you react upon hearing of it?
He was shot and killed at the Fuel Station in Otukpo on the 25th November 1999 at about 5pm or thereabout. I was in my house in Makurdi when my assistant Apake Asemanya (aka Gadafy) broke the news. My first reaction was who will want to shoot my father in Otukpo? I struggled to make sense of the story but when I went to my office in High Level and called the family house in Otukpo, the brutal reality struck me. I was preparing to attend a Year 2000 Millennium Bug Committee meeting when I got the news. I had to go to the venue to tell them the sad news and then went to meet my brother in-law, Tony Egwu, of blessed memory, together with who I proceeded to Madonna hospital mortuary where the corpse was brought to. So the reaction was shock, disbelief and worry. I recall when I told my wife what had happened, she replied, “you must be joking”. I said why would I joke over that. For the entire family it was just a nightmare. In our minds, he would grow old, play with his grand kids, (he loved them dearly) and probably die of old age. But sudden death was never in our “mind book”.
Late Col. A. Ochefu Prof. Y.A Ochefu
What would constitute your last interactions with your father?
I had visited Otukpo the week before and we had analysed the new government of George Akume. He knew that I was a part of the Government and had helped draft the Benue Advance Plan, the planning document of the new administration, as well as served in the Transition Committee led by the late Chief Ason Bur. Indeed, it was he who looked at the initial draft of the BAP and suggested that Good Governance must be a corner stone for any planning document. We had adopted it and as at 1999, we were the only State Government with such a document that had good governance as its key objective. As I was leaving to head back to Makurdi he went to salute some women who were meeting with my mother and took off to another meeting. I remember him saying “social obligations are all we do these days”. We had planned to meet the following week when he came to Makurdi. Then the bombshell.
What has been the difference between the time your father was alive and after his death?
As a man of many parts, he left a big void. When you, as an adult, used to having a father, confidant, business partner and adviser, and all that stops suddenly, you can imagine the disruption in your life. He did not believe in wills and used to say that whoever was going to administer his estate, would be in a lot of trouble. When I got that responsibility, I came to realise what he meant. The fact that you must take up responsibilities that ordinarily did not come your way. I am not his eldest son but was the eldest on ground as my elder brother was based in the UK. This was the major difference that I had to deal with.
Describe your late father as: a soldier; a family man/father; and a civilian/businessman.
Mallam Abochi (Idoma corruption of Aboki), as he was fondly called, was a child of destiny. A professional soldier, astute business man, community leader and a lover of service. He was born in February of 1926 and had his primary school education at the Methodist Central School Otukpo-Icho. Some of his schoolmates like Professor Ochapa Onazi remember him as a diligent and studious pupil. Indeed he finished primary school serving the missionary priests who were so impressed by his exemplary conduct that they offered to train him to become a priest. However, on the eve of his departure to Ibadan to start his Junior Seminary, his mother called him into her chambers for what he thought was the usual parting words from a mother concerned for her first son who was about to embark on a journey to the unknown, so to speak. To his shock and disbelief his mother showed him a rope with which she threatened to hang herself should he embark on the trip to Ibadan. This motherly blackmail killed his ambition to become a priest. At age seventeen, armed with a first school-leaving certificate and in company of two friends from Idomaland, he headed for Kaduna to get a job with the Northern Nigeria civil service. On arrival, the only vacancies immediately available were for typists. When asked if he knew how to type he truthfully told them no. He had never seen a typewriter in his life let alone use one. His two friends when asked the same question lied and got the job. By the time the Northern Civil Service discovered they could not type, they had been documented as bonafide staff, and were posted as clerical assistants instead of typists. At this point Tony was left with the option of going back home or searching for another job. He was told that the police were recruiting so he went and got lucky. Within two months of his training, he again lost the job for telling the truth. He was caught sleeping on guard duty and when the European Inspector asked whether he would fall asleep in the future he truthfully told him that he was not sure. The harmattan cold in Kaduna then was simply too much for the young fellow. His fellow Idoma man who reported him to the Inspector, in the first instance, encouraged him to go to Zaria and join the army rather than return to Benue. Not knowing how to get to Zaria he simply followed the railway line and, after a day and half trek over nearly 70 kilometers, got there and joined the Nigerian Army in 1952.
My father was an original thinker, routinely analytical and practical in orientation. He brought honesty, commitment, freshness and panache to everything that he did in his entire life. He started off his military career as a rank and file serving in Zaria, Enugu, and Abeokuta. Given his level of literacy within the rank and file in the army at that time, he quickly moved up the ladder. His honesty and dedication earned him accolades from his superior officers. In one incident while signing for his annual leave allowance, he noticed that he was being paid as a married soldier. When he drew the attention of the paying officer, that he was not married and as such not entitled to so much, the officer tersely replied, “who ask you? My friend just sign and take your money”. He however stood his ground until the superior officer who had been overhearing the exchange from his office intervened. His honesty earned him five pounds, a huge amount in those days. He invested this windfall in books, self-education, and marriage. When he went to the United Kingdom for a short training course in Signalling, he spent most of his funds buying books. By the time he was a Sergeant he had not only sat for and passed the London GCE that qualified him to apply for a commission into the Officer corps but also married. Together with my mother they had seven children. As an Officer in the Nigerian Army he was part of the team that started the Nigerian Defence Academy, working directly under Major Chukuwma Nzeogwu and Brigadier Varma, the Indian Commandant of the Academy. He served in the United Nations Force in Congo, and when the Nigerian civil war broke out, he saw combat in three major fronts. First was with the Second Division in the Midwest sector under General Murtala Mohammed. He often told the story of how the Olu of Warri (Itsekiri?) mistakenly gave the advancing Nigerian forces a package that had been labelled for the Biafrans. To be on the safe side the royal monarch had prepared two packages. When the Federal troops came in first the Palace officials mistakenly gave them the package that had been labelled for the Biafran troops. When Tony Ochefu saw the error, he privately drew the Olu’s attention, urging him to bring the one meant for the Federal troops. Ordinarily this act would have been seen as one of treason but according to him those were days that many would do anything to survive. The Warri Kingdom was later to reward him with the title of “Agbanakuya”. In the landings at Calabar, he distinguished himself as a tactician by taking Creek town without firing a single shot. Serving as a field commander under the demanding General Officer Commanding the Third Marine Corp, General Adekunle, the Black Scorpion, Tony Ochefu was injured in Bonny when an RPG exploded on him. He spent three days in the bush before help came. Upon discharge from the war front and following the end of the war, he was drafted to the Lagos Garrison as Commander. Under his command the nucleus of what is now Bonny Camp was expanded. From Lagos Garrison, he became Provost Marshall of the Army and for some time Director of Military Intelligence and later, briefly, as Military Governor of East Central State.
Retired in his early fourties, a fate that would be shared by many other Officers, Tony Ochefu relocated from Government House Enugu to a modest house on 13 Igumale Street Otukpo. From here he tried his hands at Commerce, Insurance, Real Estate, Cooperatives, and Agriculture. Like everything he did, he made a success of life after the army. Indeed, he made more money in five years after he left the Army than in all the years he spent in the Army. He was not your hardnosed capitalist. For him making money was only important because with money you can help people. He constantly reminded everyone that discipline and decisiveness are critical variables to success. He advocated for “Ward Governments” believing that the States were an unnecessary intermediary and, if wards were empowered, rural development would occur at a faster rate. He believed that ideas were the key catalyst in business. He often tasked young men and women to come up with Immediate Money-Making Project’s (IMMP) and supported as many of such projects as you can imagine. His capacity for assisting people was seemingly endless. He would come out of his house and dole out cash, cloth, food, and advice to anybody who came to him. He firmly believed that state power could be used to transform the lives of ordinary people. He believed that power, roads, and water were the basic building blocks on which development rested and that education was the mortar that held these blocks together. That was why he named the primary school he built, following his retirement, Foundation Nursery and Primary School. When the ban on politics was lifted in 1978, all the major actors wooed him. His good friend J.S. Tarka attempted to draft him into the National Party of Nigeria. Chief Obafemi Awolowo also wooed him into Unity Party of Nigeria. In the end he joined the Nigerian Peoples Party. In 1983 he was the major financier of Paul Unongo in the attempt to unseat Aper Aku of the NPN as Governor of Benue State. The bid failed and while the case was in court, the military took over. After this he lost interest in active politics and never joined a political party till he died.
Self-discipline and commitment to development of society made Tony Ochefu stand out as a special man. As a family man he forged close relationships with his immediate and extended family. He was Chairman of both the Ujo and Ochefu family meetings. He was a thoroughly detribalized individual who allowed his Children to marry their sweethearts rather than “home groomed” spouses. Thus, he had in-laws from Ekiti and Imo States and Republic of Cameroun.
On the 25th of November 1999 a band of young assassins gunned down Col. Anthony Aboki Ochefu (rtd) at Texaco Filling Station in Otukpo. He had stopped to buy fuel and pick up a few toiletries from the mini mart at the station when he was accosted and shot four times on the chest at close range. Here was a man who was supremely fearless, had seen combat in Congo and Biafra, had been shot at five times by armed robbers on his way to my wedding in Lagos, only to be shot and killed in Otukpo. Tony Ochefu though dead and buried, lives forever in our hearts. He will always be remembered as a self-made man, patriot and chief steward who lived and died for his country and community.
Which occasion would you consider to be Late Col Ochefu’s greatest moment, and which would be his lowest point?
That is a tough one. For me as a secondary school student, when his name was announced as Governor of East Central State, I was very excited. I had hoped it was Benue-Plateau and looked forward to seeing an official car BPSG emblazoned on it. However, at that time, an ECSG was also going to do fine. For Him, making a difference in the State was very important. He had fought in the war and knew the terrain very well and had tremendous respect for Igbo people. He was the first military governor of the State, taking over from the civilian, Mr Ukpabi Asika, whose official designation was Administrator. He told me that as Governor he had a difficult time with his boss, General Murtala Mohammed, the Head of State. They disagreed on the composition of Commissioners he nominated as Murtala rejected the initial list as containing too many “arch rebels” to which my father responded as not knowing he was sent to administer rebels. When his retirement from the army came after a Council of States meeting where he queried the disposition of the C-in-C towards implementation of the Universal Basic Education in the State, he famously responded that “I stand down with humility”. So withing six months, he had gone from being Provost Marshall of the Nigerian Army, being part of a coup plot that removed Gowon, appointed Governor of a State, and then retired from the army. These maybe, for me, the high and low moments.
(Interview by steve anyebe).