The Ugep Massacre of 1975: A Christmas Eve Ugep Would Never Forget.
When a military reprisal left homes destroyed, families displaced and lives lost.
There are moments in the history of a people that must never be allowed to disappear into silence.
For Ugep, 24 December 1975 is one of those dates.
What should have been the beginning of Christmas celebrations became one of the darkest nights in the community's history. The event, now remembered as the Ugep Massacre, resulted in the destruction of homes and property, the displacement of thousands of people and the deaths of numerous civilians.
At the time, Ugep had a military presence.
Soldiers of the 8th Battalion of the Nigerian Army, under the 13th Infantry Brigade based in Calabar, were stationed in the community.
Historical accounts identify the disappearance and subsequent death of a soldier as the immediate trigger for the attack.
According to accounts preserved over the years, the soldier was believed by his colleagues to have been killed by people in Ugep. Acting on that assumption, soldiers entered the community on the night of 24 December 1975 and launched a violent reprisal.
Homes were set ablaze. People fled their houses and sought refuge in surrounding communities. Families were separated, property was destroyed and many people were killed.
Contemporary and later accounts differ considerably on the exact scale of the destruction and loss of life. One contemporary report cited 13 deaths, 100 injuries and 7,500 people left homeless, while the Ugep Development Union reportedly gave a much higher figure of approximately 65 deaths and more than 300 injured. Other accounts have placed the number of deaths even higher.
The destruction was extensive. One eyewitness account published decades later recalled that a large portion of Ugep was burnt and that families spent the night hiding in the bush while their homes were being destroyed.
The soldier whose death became the trigger
One of the most significant elements of the history is what happened after the attack.
The soldier whose disappearance had triggered the reprisal was eventually found dead.
Accounts of the subsequent military investigation stated that he had not been murdered by the people of Ugep. Rather, he was reportedly intoxicated, suffered a seizure and choked on his own sputum.
In other words, a community suffered devastating consequences following an assumption that later evidence did not support.
A panel of inquiry was subsequently established by the Federal Military Government and headed by Justice Okoridobu to investigate the massacre.
However, the full report has remained difficult to access publicly, and the absence of the original inquiry report has contributed to continuing uncertainty around some aspects of the event.
Community accounts also describe women being sexually assaulted, including reports of rape during the attack. These accounts form part of the oral and communal memory of the massacre and deserve to be documented alongside the other testimonies, while the archive continues to seek primary documentation and survivor accounts that can establish the details more firmly.
Among those remembered as having lost their lives was Ojah Ikpi of Mpanghi, Biko Biko, whose name deserves to be preserved as part of the human story behind the statistics.
The place still remembers. The physical landscape of Ugep also carries memories of this period.
The area historically associated with the military presence is still known locally as "Army Barracks." It is situated at Ntamkpo, towards Ekori, and the name remains part of Ugep's geographical memory.
That name is more than a location. It is a reminder that the Nigerian Army once maintained a base in this part of Ugep, and that the community's relationship with that military presence became inseparably connected to one of the darkest episodes in its history.
The Ugep Massacre should not be remembered merely as an old tragedy. It should be remembered because history has consequences.
For decades, stories of that night have been carried from parents to children, from elders to younger generations, through personal memories, photographs, newspaper reports and oral accounts. Some details have remained consistent; others have become disputed with time.
This is precisely why the history must be documented.
Discover Ugep Digital Archive exists to preserve these stories, not to reopen wounds, but to ensure that the experiences of those who came before us are not erased.
The names of the dead should be remembered.
The stories of the survivors should be heard.
The locations connected to the event should be documented.
The historical records should be preserved.
And where accounts differ, those differences should also be recorded honestly.
Because preserving history does not mean pretending that every detail is settled. It means having the courage to ask questions, preserve evidence and allow future generations to understand what happened.
On 24 December 1975, Ugep experienced a tragedy that changed countless lives.
More than five decades later, the responsibility of remembering belongs to all of us.
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