FIRST generation Awoist and elder statesmen, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, yesterday picked holes in Professor Chinua Achebe’s accusation that Chief Obafemi Awolowo was part of General Yakubu Gowon’s cabinet that initiated pogrom and genocide as a policy against the Igbo during the civil war.

Controversy surrounding the new book written by Prof. Chinua Achebe deepened yesterday with South West and South East leaders drawing sharp divisions over the aptness of claims in the book that Chief Obafemi Awolowo implemented genocidal policies against Ibos during the Biafran war.

The storm generated by renown novelist, Prof Chinua Achebe, over his claim that war-time Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, and the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo formulated the policy of genocide against Igbo during the civil war continued, yesterday.

There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra by Chinua Achebe continues to win worldwide acclaim. The latest review of the Literary giants latest published work comes from Noo Saro-Wiwa, who wrote that ‘Memoir and history are brought together by a master story-teller’. Noo Saro-Wiwa’s Looking for Transwonderland: Travels in Nigeria is published by Granta. His review was published Friday in UK Guardian. Excerpt: