Sunday, June 8th 1969.
Footage of the funeral of 10 Italian oil workers who were killed by Biafran commandos in a raid conducted near the town of Kwale in the Mid West State of Nigeria.
The funeral took place in the Church of Santa Barbara in Metanopoli, an industrial town near Milan on a day declared as one for national mourning . Among those present were the Italian Prime Minister Mariano Rumor and some of the surviving oil workers who had been kidnapped, tried and condemned to death by the Biafran authorities before they were released.
The men were released after, it was claimed, a special intercession on the part of the Portuguese government. It was believed at the time that global revulsion and the pressure brought to bear on the Biafran leader, former Lt. Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, played a part in enabling the men to be set free.
However, interviews conducted over the years, as well as the release of previously classified documents point to the Italian government and AGIP as having paid a ransom fee of (US) $3 Million to secure the men's release.
After the funeral, the mens relatives took their bodies to be buried in their hometowns.
Source of Foorage: Reuters News Archive.
