xxgig:
from the tales i have heard and read, he's simply the best. Tried for abuse of his office and acquited. He started the GREAT UNIBEN, the old Agbede farm brought sport to life in the state ( Bendel ) and a host of other achievemet.

xxgig:
The best man to ever serve Edo/Delta (from midwest to bendel) state. Rest in Peace

AngelicBeing:
True that, and many more will still go, bunch of useless people

AlPeter:
The man who ruined Ojukwu's plan, saved his people from the murderous and traitorous biafran army. Samuel Ogbemudia the brave soldier RIP
You will never be forgotten many lived cause you fought.

Erstwhile military governor of the Midwest Region and later governor of the equally defunct Bendel State, Brigadier-General Samuel Ogbemudia, was at the onset of the civil war, one of the highest ranking officers from the Midwest Region.

Once the Biafran Army overran the Midwest Region, Ogbemudia was dispatched to Kaduna with a DC 3 plane to procure arms from Kaduna by Major-Gen. David Ejoor who held command of the Federal Forces in Benin.

However, in Kaduna, Ogbemudia was to his dismay only given 30 guns and some ammunition to fight the Biafran Army that had already taken control of the Midwest Region.

In this narration Ogbemudia told Vanguard of the subtle strategies and structures employed to defend the region including the valuable role of young Midwest girls in the liberation. Ogbemudia, presently, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP is the patron of the Edo Mass Movement, EMM, a body aiming to position a worthy successor to the outgoing governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

Excerpts:

Without arms what did you do?
The girls were told to go to the Biafran troops and get for us some arms and ammunition. And everyone they brought, we paid for it. Remarkably, they did. There was one girl, I saw her a few months ago and she is now an old woman, she brought twelve rifles and about 20,000 bullets. I said to her, how did you get these? She said somebody organized a get together, so she attended and incidentally, the leader of the Biafran troops was interested in her.

So, she told the man, I don’t want any money from you, my brother wants to be a hunter and wants to kill elephants, so I need weapons and ammunition to do this. The young man said that is simple, he was a major in rank. So, he told her to bring a taxi, and it was in that taxi that they loaded the rifles and ammunition. So we started.

Exit from Benin
My wife was a policewoman, and whenever we wanted anything, she would dress up and pass the roadblock without any issue. The day I left Benin, she took me up to the village near Ekiadolor. I slept there because I had a relation and wanted to stay about two, three days there, and I told my relations ‘I don’t want anyone to know that I am here.’

They said no problem. Not quite fifteen minutes after, about eight persons came and greeted, ‘domo sir we won’t tell anybody,’ and they left. Not quite another twenty minutes, another group came and greeted, ‘we won’t tell anybody,’ so after about four different groups had come, I told my wife, this place is not safe, so I left for the next village.

A few days after in that village, I tried to get Lagos and the phones that were in that area were not working. I later found out that you could get to Owo via Ogbesse instead of the Owan road. So, I told my sister that she would have to go with me. She followed me, and we got to Egbeta after Okada and some soldiers came out from the bush and said halt! I raised my hands, and they said who are you? I gave a name.

One looked at me over and over and over. He said "We won’t let you go, can you come and see our senior officer, and I asked what is the name of your senior officer? He said "Chukwuka and that Chukwuka was my boy". I said to my sister that if I get to that place, then I am finished, I must find a way out. I had a pistol which the boy didn’t bother to find.

When he was in front, my sister was following him, and I pulled out my gun and looked at the ammunition inside and there were thirteen, and I said good, this is enough to get out, and I put it back. Then I walked straight up to him and his friend, they were two. They made one mistake, and they flung their rifle and held the sling, and they were walking.

If you are going to shoot somebody, you have to remove it from your shoulder, cock the gun and by which time if the person is a fast runner, he would have done about 50, 60 meters. The rest is now history. I got to Owo with my sister and from Owo Post Office, I phoned Bissalla, who was the Chief of Staff. Bisalla phoned Gowon, and they said I should come and so, I went to Lagos.

Arrival in Lagos
On arrival, I saw Gowon, I went to the Chief of Staff, I went to the head of the Intelligence who debriefed me, and Gowon told me that there was a committee for Midwest Liberation headed by Chief Udoji and that I should go and see them. So, I went. In the evening, the place was full. All Midwesterners were there and started asking me the story of how I left, and I told them that I would never tell them how I left and that it was sufficient that I was there with them.

Their conclusion was that I should go to the hospital for the doctor to look at me because I had lost weight and after that, come and prepare to go back to the Midwest. I told them, "Sorry, I have lost some weight in my body and that nothing is wrong with my spirit and that ‘I have come here to ask Gowon to give me troops to go and liberate the Midwest." They said how many troops do you want?

I said a minimum of 600. They asked whether I don’t want to go to the hospital? I said "No, that there were people worse than myself in the Midwest and that unless the doctor would be willing to go there to take care of them, and that for me, my spirit was quite high and that they should not bother about what they saw in my flesh."

So, I told Gowon, and he approved. But the Chief of General Staff went to Gowon and told him, ‘you know Samuel (Ogbemudia) right from training that he could be an Ojukwu man and that if you give him 600 troops he could overrun all of us,’ and Gowon was taken in, and he told me, ‘we cannot find all the troops you want now, but I want you to go and join Murtula Mohammed who is already organized with some troops, and they are about to enter the Midwest.” http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/12/how-bendel-girls-battled-biafra-ogbemudia/

babyfaceafrica:
How old was he?