The former military head of state, General Yakubu Gowon (rtd), is required to apologize to the Southeast people for his part in the Biafra Civil War, according to the Abia state branch of the Peoples Democratic Party, or PDP.

Gowon’s name unnerves a lot of people in the Southeast because of his Civil War involvement, according to a statement from Abraham Amah, the PDP’s interim state publicity secretary in Abia.

Amah was responding to a claim that Gowon and the incoming governor of the state, Alex Otti, will lead a prayer meeting on Sunday.

The Master’s Vessel Church in the state’s Umuahia region will host the prayer meeting.

‘The attention of the Abia PDP has been drawn to a news item in circulation on social media indicating that Nigeria’s former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, would on Sunday, April 23, lead a prayer session in one Master’s Vessel Church Umuahia, Abia State under the auspices of his pet project, Nigeria Prays, to usher in a new Abia,’ the statement read. Any meaning attached to “a new Abia.”

“The name, Yakubu Gowon is unsettling to many people in the South-East given the ignoble roles he played during the Biafran Civil War for which he is yet to render any public apology.”

Amah said that it was disrespectful to choose Gowon as a special visitor in the state that is home to the murdered General Aguiyi Ironsi.

The PDP stated that a Catholic Bishop and other prominent clerics were products of the state of Abia.

It emphasized the fact that Gowon had not yet made his faults during the Civil War public.

Amah stated: “The only way the prayer session would make meaning to the millions of Southeasterners, dead and alive, is for Gowon to use the opportunity of the prayer session and convert it to a moment of truth and apologise to the people for his role in the atrocious war that led to the untimely death of millions of our very resourceful people,” he added.