₦airaland Forum

Zooposki:
Great. A product of Ajayi Crowther. Congrats.

wow same here.
What did you study

shortgun:
All these atrocities was done by the Nigerian troops during the war get your facts right.

Continue viewing us as daft. We didn't know who Nigerian soldiers were and how ragtag the Biafran soldiers looked like.

WickedAfonja:
Only a child doesn't know this

Wike says he's not Igbo yet his name is Igbo
Lol

He was known as Edwin Clark, no one said he was from Liverpool.

shortgun:
The atrocities committed by the British government lead by Harold Wilson against Igbos because of oil will continue to hunt their descendants forever

Palm oil?

caleboxylic:
Ajayi didn't teach anybody language. He never spoke igbo in his lifetime.

You say? You say wetin?
I have better things to do this morning.

Felimax:
You say? You say wetin?
I have better things to do this morning.

He never did. The era of Ibadan express newspaper is gone.
He didn't write any igbo Bible. He was just the publisher.

shortgun:
The atrocities committed by the British government lead by Harold Wilson against Igbos because of oil will continue to hunt their descendants forever

Which oil,?

chrisxxx:
Continue viewing us as daft. We didn't know who Nigerian soldiers were and how ragtag the Biafran soldiers looked like.

Let's try logic, let's assume your claims on who commit what is right. So if for instance one of your siblings decided to commit a heinous crime against one of your other siblings, so this will automatically change his dna or is true identity and he will no longer be the biological child of your father? Is that how it works?

shortgun:
The most horrifying massacres and atrocities during the war were committed by Nigerian troops, including the Asaba massacre perpetrated by the Nigerian army. Reports were often doctored, especially by the British media.

Read accounts by neutral frontline journalists who documented the events of the war. Journalists like Frederick Forsyth, who was British but had to resign from the BBC due to the corporation’s coverage of the Nigerian Civil War, which was biased in favor of the Nigerian federal government and unfair to Biafra. Forsyth said his reports to the BBC were either edited heavily or rejected entirely when they portrayed Biafra sympathetically or highlighted atrocities by federal troops.

Forsyth is quoted as saying: “I was told to report what London wanted to hear. I could not do that and call myself a journalist.”

The Hausa troops wore Biafran ragtag uniforms and spoke Igbo fluently with a direct communication from Ojukwu.

chiagozien:
You mean you people in Delta state are omo Igbos?




But Yorubas said you people are not Igbos?

Is Sunday oliseh Yoruba? He said he is not igbo. Is wike and Rotimi amaechi Yoruba? They said they are not Igbos.

You can't force identity on someone nau.

Apart from those 3 people I mentioned, there are many other people from those areas that denounce igbo heritage. I wonder why this is so.

Why are most of you always this daft. So we can not decide what we want for ourselves without being branded yoruba on bini. 80% of anioma are against joining the south east. Forget this jargon coming out from ned nwoko.

zeuss:
lateef olowokekere is that you?

Even in aniocha oshimili about 80% are against joining the south east not to talk about ndokwa and ika areas where about 98% are against it. Mind you we don't hate igbos but we abhor some of your behaviours

givedemwotowoto:
If e sure for you, tell us something about Anioma that can’t be found on the internet by Amaechi laptop recipients

Wetin concern anioma with apc. Even the governor go confirm ay we hate that party during elections

Dalohad:
You be APC?

If you know anioma people you won't be asking this. Even in lifestyle we are different. We are not even business inclined like them. We worship our traditional instructions too unlike the south east

shortgun:
You are Igbo but different from other Igbos. How does that sound to you?

Chekwume16:
If you know anioma people you won't be asking this. Even in lifestyle we are different. We are not even business inclined like them. We worship our traditional instructions too unlike the south east

I don’t really blame those who say you are Yoruba Masquerading as an Anioma,Anioma as a people are not monolithic,There is a big difference between the Enuanis and the Ikas,I have been to several Communities there and the only thing they have in common is just that they are both in Delta north area
The Enuanis have Omus while the Ndokwas don’t,and many Anioma Communities do not have Traditional institutions especially the Ukwuani/Ndokwa areas

WickedAfonja:
Only a child doesn't know this

Wike says he's not Igbo yet his name is Igbo
Lol

Many of us bear English and Hebrew names that doesn't make us Hebrews and English

Chekwume16:
Why are most of you always this daft. So we can not decide what we want for ourselves without being branded yoruba on bini. 80% of anioma are against joining the south east. Forget this jargon coming out from ned nwoko.

by all means go where you belong join OPC, but allow Ned and other Igbo identify where they want, it is up to Igbo to accept them or reject them. Igbo will always progress regardless of your feelings. Your sister Abike Dabiri sends her regards.

The Biafra Army committed Genocide in the Midwest against both the Northerners and the Midwesterners

In a US confidential report of 15 October 1967 recorded that, “as the Biafrans retreated from Benin to Agbor, they killed all the men, women and children they could find who were not Igbos. The town of Abudu, one of the larger places between Agbor and Benin lost virtually of its population with the exception of a small proportion that fled into the bush.”

The Biafran Soldiers were so vicious that they butchered many of their victims and prisoners as meat for food that was why Biafra hardly released any Prisoners after the War


https://m.facebook.com/naijainfoman/posts/1139807712715827


Enough Of This Biafran Nonsense!!! By alabo abiye Akkio-abbey


As a Rivers man who saw the events of 1967-1970 and who was old enough to understand them, this protest in Port Harcourt is a slap on true Rivers indigenes. and the memory of ALL the Rivers men and women who were slaughtered in the pogroms and ethnic cleansing committed during the civil war by the Biafran Army.
Let us remind ourselves of the TRUE facts and REAL reasons behind the secession and subsequent civil war. Ojukwu and his cohorts decided to secede from Nigeria because Gowon broke up the regions and created Rivers State among the 12 states he created. Remember the Aburi accord? Article 4 of that accord had to do with the breaking up of the regions. On the 27th of May, 1967, Gowon broke up the Regions, from the then Eastern Region and carved out Rivers, South-Eastern and East-Central states. 3 days later on 30th May, 1967 Ojukwu seceded citing the Aburi accord. ON ABURI WE STAND!! The rallying war cry of the day. How anyone who calls himself/herself a Rivers indigene support tacitly or otherwise the so-called Biafra cause when Biafra seceeded just because Rivers State was created and the Rivers people for once had a right to self rule?
In the quest for a sovereign country did the Igbo majority seek, discuss with or solicit the support of the minorities in the Oil Rivers and South-East?? Where is Biafra? How do you seek for a country which was susequently named Biafra WITHOUT involving the indigenous people of Biafra? Isn't that supreme arrogance or maybe they were not included because they were meant to be wiped out later. Events proved the latter to be true.
Late Chief (Dr.) Nabo Graham-Douglas who was the Attorney General of the Eastern Region was sent on compulsory leave and exiled to his home town Abonnema with orders for him to be executed. Fortunately the plans leaked and he miraculously escaped. He didn't draw the Articles of secession and only heard about Biafra from the BBC journalists who came to interview him in Abonnema.
He was one of the lucky ones.
The ethnic cleansing began in earnest. Our intelligentsia; top civil servants, technocrats and other able bodied men and women were rounded up and summarily executed in Enugu, Owerri, Aba, Umuahia, Degema, Buguma, Bakana, to mention but a few towns/cities. In Port Harcourt, Rainbow town and Igritta, became killing fields. the bones of those victims still lie there
These atrocities were committed by the Biafran Army, against people who were supposed to be fighting the same cause with them.
In a bid to wipe out the minority tribes, our towns and villages were evacuated, our men put to slave labour and later on shot (reminiscent of Nazi Germany), our women taken as sex slaves, young boys shared the same fate as the men. Bakana, Bille, Abonnema were all forcefully evacuated.
Finally, when the Nigerian Army counter attacked and liberated Port Harcourt, the retreating Biafran Army, burnt Kingsway (now Supabod building), [b]Nabo Graham-Douglas's law library (which was the best Law library in the whole of West Africa) [/b]and other land marks in the Garden city. Of what military significance were these acts??
I don't blame the misguided ill-informed people for trampling on the graves of those who were murdered by the Biafran Army, by protesting in Port Harcourt. I blame Gowon for forbidding accounts of the war being published after the war, but more importantly for not trying war criminals (like Col Ojeh of Degema) within the Biafran Army and holding them accountable for their inhuman and murderous actions during the war. 70 years after World War 2, we are still reminded on a daily basis the atrocities that the Nazi's committed. If Gowon had done what he was morally and duty bound to do, this matter of Biafra would have been put to rest once and for all.
By the way, in May 1968, my uncle (my mother's younger brother) was shot in his Warri street residence in Port Harcourt, his corpse butchered, his flesh sold as Biafra meat in Mile 1 market.

That same day the Nigerian Army opened up and started shelling Port Harcourt, which was ultimately liberated
Are those protesting and the other supporters of "Biafra" aware of these facts??
The war has been over these past 45 years, we are forging on as a country, setting aside our ethnocentric issues. That Ex-Biafrans have been assimilated into all spheres of our society (as they should), without any punishment meted out to the war criminals among them, doesn't give anyone the right to re-write history or bring these painful memories back.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!

tunjijones:
Is Sunday oliseh Yoruba? He said he is not igbo. Is wike and Rotimi amaechi Yoruba? They said they are not Igbos.

You can't force identity on someone nau.

Apart from those 3 people I mentioned, there are many other people from those areas that denounce igbo heritage. I wonder why this is so.

You know about the few people like wike and Amaechi but you don't know about people like Okowa,Nede Nwoko and millions of others that are proud of their Igbo identity?


We are not forcing identity on anyone, Igbos have never done that,
You ene!mies of Igbos are the ones forcing identity on our people.

Because of few individuals among millions said they are not Igbo, you want other millions of Igbos in the states to be tagged none Igbos.


One man like wike will say he's not igbo, you will agree with him, and say that all rivers are not Igbos,Igbos are forcing identity on them.


But when one Man like Okowa will say he's Igbo, you will never agree with him, and will never say all delta people are Igbos.


Life of hypocrites.

You are saying you don't know the reason they're denouncing Igbo, But the topic we are discussing on is the main reason and one of the reasons for that.
After hearing it from someone in south south the reason some of them deny, you will still not know why Even tomorrow, you will never know.



1966 coup was lead by a South South man together with other Yoruba soldiers, you people tagged it Igbo coup, because of that targeted and kil!!led thousands of innocent Igbos in North and South West.
Yet south south people are not igbos, Igbos are the ones forcing identity on them.




Below 👇 👇 is Stella Damasus reveals her family name was Ojukwu but had to change it to Damasus to avoid Igbophobia and attacks.

After watching it, u will still never know why many are saying they are not Igbos, especially younger one that doesn't know reason their parents did it was to survive Yoruba and Hausafulanis attack and kill?!ing



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Lj2G0dFno

chiagozien:
You know about the few people like wike and Amaechi but you don't know about people like Okowa,Nede Nwoko and millions of others that are proud of their Igbo identity?


We are not forcing identity on anyone, Igbos have never done that,
You ene!mies of Igbos are the ones forcing identity on our people.

Because of few individuals among millions said they are not Igbo, you want other millions of Igbos in the states to be tagged none Igbos.


One man like wike will say he's not igbo, you will agree with him, and say that all rivers are not Igbos,Igbos are forcing identity on them.


But when one Man like Okowa will say he's Igbo, you will never agree with him, and will never say all delta people are Igbos.


Life of hypocrites.

You are saying you don't know the reason they're denouncing Igbo, But the topic we are discussing on is the main reason and one of the reasons for that.
After hearing it from someone in south south the reason some of them deny, you will still not know why Even tomorrow, you will never know.



1966 coup was lead by a South South man together with other Yoruba soldiers, you people tagged it Igbo coup, because of that targeted and kil!!led thousands of innocent Igbos in North and South West.
Yet south south people are not igbos, Igbos are the ones forcing identity on them.




Below 👇 👇 is Stella Damasus reveals her family name was Ojukwu but had to change it to Damasus to avoid Igbophobia and attacks.

After watching it, u will still never know why many are saying they are not Igbos, especially younger one that doesn't know reason their parents did it was to survive Yoruba and Hausafulanis attack and kill?!ing



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Lj2G0dFno

But the Yoruba communities outside south west (kogi and Kwara) have never ever doubted their identities as yorubas. All of them are always happy to associate with yorubas. Even itsekiri people are happy to identify with Yoruba. I am always surprised when some of your cousins from rivers and delta always deny being Igbos. Wetin Una do them? You see people bearing igbo names and speaking a language very similar to igbo denouncing their identities as Igbos.

You people must have done things to them for them to dislike you.

Yes I know there are several Igbos in rivers and delta that still represent with you people.

yarimo:
Senator Ned looking for IPOB mumu bottom to press oo 🤣🤣

Senseless post as usual. Seun characters like this should not be on nairaland but you keep ignoring the right things to do

Mrfixitt:
Senseless post as usual. Seun characters like this should not be on nairaland but you keep ignoring the right things to do

una go get sense for this nairaland una like it or not 😆

My senator,always representing us well,that's why we keep voting him.Not to mention his unbelievable constituency projects....as we usually say in Asaba,Igbo bu Igbo!

At the time of the Biafran Invasion, there had been no "northern" troops in the Midwest. The Nigerian Army 4th Area Command had two battalions organized in nine (9) companies. Two companies were based in Benin, two in Agbor, two in Asaba, and one each in Warri, Auchi and Ekiadolor. It was manned by Midwesterners, under the command of Lt. Col. Conrad Nwawo [the same officer to whom Major Patrick C.K. Nzeogwu (also Midwest Ibo) had surrendered in Jan 1966]. Because several non-Ibo officers remained in Lagos and Kaduna, all but three officers on the ground (Lt. Col. David Ejoor, Majors Ogbemudia and Eremobor) of the rank of Major and above were Midwestern Ibos. Probably 75% or more of the 42 officers were Ibo-speaking. Indeed, in addition to possessing a sizable chunk of the rank and file, among the strategic positions in the Command, Ibo-speaking officers held the following:

Commander, 4th Area Command (Lt. Col. Nwawo)
General Staff Officer 1 (Operations) (Lt. Col. Nwanjei)
Staff Officer (Civil-Military Liaison), Governors Office
Commander, Benin Garrison, including two companies (Lt. Col. Ruddy Trimnell)
Battalion Commander (Lt. Col. Igboba)
Battalion Commander (Lt. Col. Ochei)
Commanding Officer, Depot. (Lt. Col. Keshi)
Officer in charge, Engineers/ Communications (Lt. Col. Okwechime)
Company Commander, Auchi area
Company Commanders, Asaba area (including Major Alabi-Isama)
Company Commanders, Agbor area
Company Commander Warri area
Company Commander, Ekiadolor Unit
Non-Ibos held the following positions:

Quarter Master-General, 4th area command (Major Ogbemudia)
Intelligence Officer (Major Eremobor)
Col. David Ejoor (Military Governor, Midwest), was thus caught between numerous Midwestern Ibo officers (whom he could neither trust nor control) and the federal government (whom they did not trust). Not exactly a stranger to intrigue, Ejoor (as Commander 1st battalion, Enugu), narrowly escaped death (from Majors Anuforo and Ifeajuna) at the Ikoyi Hotel in Lagos, Jan 15,1966. He also slipped out of an attempted kidnap (by Ojukwu) during the burial of Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi at Umuahia on Jan 20, 1967. As noted above, he tried to play a balancing act as a neutral, by declaring that the Midwestern region 'would not become a battlefield'. It was a no win situation.

As far back as April 6th, 1967 almost two months before the proclamation of secession, special branch police reports had alerted the federal government of certain activities that were to take on significance later (10). Two officers from the eastern region, (Lt. Col. Ude and Major Obioha) were in contact with some of their counterparts in the Midwest to make arrangements for the possible occupation of the Midwest by troops from the Eastern Area Command. The pretext would be that the Midwest was not strong enough to defend itself and that Midwest Ibos needed protection. This occupation was to be coordinated with a simultaneous seizure of the Western region, which (according to the report) was why some individuals (presumably Ojukwu, Awolowo and Adebayo) were advocating that "northern" troops leave that region.

Ude and Obioha apparently met with Lt. Cols. Igboba, Nwawo, Okwechime and Nwajei, along with Major David Odiwo and a civilian hotelier, Joseph Nwababa. Igboba and Nwajei reportedly reconnoitered the Ilusi and Ubiaja areas of the region to determine their suitability as a springboard for operations. This option would have meant bypassing Benin while advancing through Owo to Ibadan. Using the African Continental Bank (ACB), money was allegedly laundered through Nwababa to Military and Police operatives.

[This detailed intelligence report provides another glimpse into the degree of dishonesty in Banjo's relationship with Ojukwu. When Ademoyega was released from Warri prison, Banjo told him that it was he (Banjo) that suggested the Midwest and Lagos moves to Ojukwu, who accepted because of his 'confidence' in him. Obviously, Banjo was unaware that plans for the invasion had been fostered even before Biafra was proclaimed.]

On July 11, a week after "police action" had commenced, Ejoor declared that the state would promptly and resolutely resist any incursion of its territory; unfortunately, signs that an invasion was indeed coming were essentially ignored. The Asaba end of the Niger Bridge was wide open. The federal blockade was not enforced by troops of the 4th area command, none of whom were under the operational control of Ejoor. Trade with the Onitsha market continued unabated. The Asaba Textile Mills, which was dependent on the Afam power station for electricity supply, had its power cut off on July 18th. The crude oil pipeline from Warri to the Port Harcourt refinery was also sabotaged (14). These acts heightened apprehension in the Midwest and raised eyebrows in Lagos. In his book (10), Major General Joe Garba (rtd) describes an irritant in the relationship between certain Midwest officers in Lagos (for example, Captain George Innih) and their northern counterparts during this period. It had to do with demands from the former that the 4th Area Command be given "adequate weapons" to defend the state, rather than rely on "northern" troops. However, in the setting of suspicions about the pro-East tilt of the majority of officers in the Midwest at that time, the federal government was, understandably, not in a hurry to flood the Midwest with weapons which might in all probability simply be handed over to Ojukwu.

A subsequent demonstration of Heavy Weapons at the Benin airport and public statements of assurance from the Commander of the 4th area command (Col. Nwawo) only served to lull the civilian population into a false sense of security. Behind the scenes, other events demonstrated the widening gulf between Ibo and non-Ibo officers. For example, on August 5, a company of soldiers led by Lt. (later Captain & "Major" Igbinosa arrived in Benin from Lagos with orders to escort a consignment of boats (procured by Ejoor from the Delta) to the Bonny sector in the East, where Lt. Col. Adekunle was operating. Igbinosa was promptly turned back by Lt. Col. Nwawo and other Midwest Ibo officers at the Area Command HQ (13). Curiously, in his "Journal of Events" (15), Ojukwu interpreted this event as follows: "Nigerian troops start amassing troops and stockpiling large quantities of arms in the Midwest in preparation for an attack on Biafra." The following day, on August 6, an embarrassed Ejoor (whose neutrality was now in doubt) confronted these same Midwest Ibo army colleagues with newspaper reports about the formation of a "southern solidarity front" to include the East, Midwest and West to the exclusion of the North (14). Not surprisingly, they denied. Interestingly, Ojukwu issued a public warning that day, to Ejoor reminding him of his pledges to keep the region neutral. However, two days later, on the night of August 8, Biafran army uniforms were secretly issued to selected Midwestern Ibos while weapons were withdrawn 'for routine check' from non-Ibo soldiers in the 4th Area Command HQ. The Police wireless station at Asaba closed down (as usual) for the night. The stage was set (14).

Between 3 a.m. when they crossed the Niger Bridge and 7:00 a.m. when the Biafran 12th battalion and 101st divisional HQ group arrived in Benin City, feverish activities took place among key officers of the 4th area command. Those in the know, manipulated and stonewalled their colleagues while rumors spread like wildfire (14). As it were, a group of Midwest Ibo officers had actually been slated to welcome Lt. Col. Banjo at Ikpoba Hill that morning (13).

Major-General Yakubu Gowon was very concerned about the dynamics of the Midwest before the invasion (12). Recognizing that (by prior agreement) there were no "northern" troops in the Midwest, he (Gowon) took the precaution of quietly creating a new brigade at Okene (in modern day Kogi State). According to Garba (10), a company was also positioned at Ore and may have been the group that put up some resistance at Siluko. All of these soldiers later came under the command of 28 year old Lt. Col . Murtala Ramat Mohammed. Although he was the coup-leader, he ceded leadership to Gowon after the July 29, 1966 counter-coup and was practically a man in search of a mission for some time after that. In a curious twist of fate, the Biafran invasion gave the Kano-born, Hausa-speaking Mohammed an opportunity to return to his ancestral home in Auchi in the Midwest region as a Liberator (17).

Initially, these Okene based troops were being massed in preparation for a possible dash to Agbor through Auchi, in the Midwestern region, to cut off any attempt by the Biafran Army to match on Benin City and on to Lagos (12). According to Ejoor, the nucleus of this unit was the 3rd battalion originally based in Ibadan, which had been transferred to Okene. In Ejoor's opinion (13), the subsequent eastward movement of most of this battalion to provide reinforcement for the Nsukka sector, opened up the flank for Ojukwu's invasion of the Midwest. Events validate Ejoor's perspective, because the 3rd battalion was not in place to stop Ivenso from entering Okene on August 13th.

Clearly monitoring the unstable situation in the Midwest, and looking for a pretext based on real or imagined troop movements, Ojukwu struck on August 9th, fast and with near-total surprise. Near total, because the clouds of imminent invasion were noticed by at least a few others. One Sergeant Major, for example, desperately sought guidance from a few non-Ibo officers to pre-emptily arrest all Midwest Ibo officers. He was quite prepared to do this, he said, as long he had an order to do so. No one was willing to bite the bullet, perhaps for fear it might boomerang. Those were anxious days (17).

By pre-arrangement, the Midwestern Area Command put up no resistance, essentially folding into the Biafran rearguard. Among others, the Officers who were most deeply involved in all of this were Lt. Cols. Mike Okwechime, Igboba, Nwajei, Ochei and Col. Conrad Nwawo. [Nigerian Army Headquarters took the view that these "Nigerian" officers were involved in a coup d'etat against the Midwestern region of Nigeria; this attitude that affected the way those who survived were treated after the war ended in Jan 1970. (12)]

The Military Governor, Col. David Ejoor, eventually escaped to Lagos, after an unusual August 11/12 midnight meeting with Lt. Col. Banjo at the Catholic Seminary in Benin City. During this encounter, he apparently declined an offer to serve as Governor and assist in efforts to remove both Gowon and Ojukwu from office and form a new reconciliatory national government in the "Dominion of Southern Nigeria". Lt. Col. Nwajei, 'Major' Alale and an unnamed Biafran 'officer' (possibly Achuzia) apparently witnessed this interesting meeting. Banjo not only apologized to Ejoor for the attack on Government House, but also stated that Ojukwu had told him that Ejoor was fully aware of the plan to seize the Midwest! (13)

On August 13, having decided that the situation was too complicated, Ejoor slipped out of the capital, dressed in a disguise, hitching a ride in a car until he got to the Sakpoba River. From there he reportedly trekked to an Urhobo settlement where he mounted a bicycle, which he says he rode for 80 miles to his mother's village at Ebor-Orogun. He remained in hiding until September 23, when (with Benin and Warri safely back in federal hands), he emerged to rendezvous with Lt. Col. Benjamin Adekunle at Warri, enroute to Lagos by air. After stints as Director of Training and Planning at Supreme Headquarters and Commandant, Nigerian Defence Academy, years later, as a Major General, he eventually became the last person to hold the title of 'Chief of Staff, Army'. He was retired in July 1975, at which time the title was changed to 'Chief of Army Staff' (13).

Banjo not only declared a free and independent Midwest region, but also expressed lack of support for the concept of an independent Biafra, infuriating Ojukwu in the process (9, 14, 19). On August 11, Lt. Col. Nwawo appealed to all soldiers in the 4th area command to "return to duty". Conceivably, their role was to help garrison the Midwest while the main group of Biafrans proceeded to Lagos. At this point, Major Sam Ogbemudia, (who was subsequently declared wanted and had a bounty placed on his head), explains in his memoirs that he went underground to assist in organizing a resistance movement (14). For those interested in parallels, this was akin to the French or Polish Resistance against Nazi occupation in the forties. Ogbemudia was trained in special warfare techniques at Fort Bragg in the United States, and had also been Chief Instructor (support weapons wing) at the Nigerian Military Training College in Kaduna. Under Major Nzeogwu and Colonel Shodeinde, he taught classes in guerrilla warfare to military trainees

THE OCCUPATION (14)

With the announcement of Major Okonkwo's appointment as Military Administrator, Midwest, came the imposition of a dusk to dawn curfew and other measures consistent with martial law. Only individuals with passes could move freely at night. The administrative machinery of the civil service was manipulated to empower those who supported the invasion (or were trusted) rather than the traditional seniority based hierarchy. Mr. Agbajor (an Itsekiri police officer who had escaped from a northern hit squad at Makurdi in September 1966) became Chief of Police. Mr. Esedebe (Midwest Ibo) functioned as Head of Service.

Some military officers then persuaded a number of traditional rulers in the Ibo-speaking areas of the state to sign petitions calling for a merger with their "kith and kin" in the east. Local Governments across the board were mandated to donate materials for transportation to Enugu to assist in the War effort. Salt was rationed because of its presumably more important use as a raw material for explosives. Because of the cutoff of northern sources of cattle, meat became scarce. Shortages of other essential commodities also developed. As might be expected, not everyone was equally affected by the shortages, creating yet another sore point (among many) for ethnic resentment.

Outright molestation, harassment and killing of non-Ibo civilians occurred on a daily basis. At night "suspected saboteurs" were fished out of their homes and arrested. The Hausa community in the Lagos street area of Benin and other parts of the state were targeted for particularly savage treatment, in part a reprisal for the pogroms of 1966, but also out of security concerns that they would naturally harbor sympathies for the regime in Lagos. But non-Hausas were just as badly treated. And as the hostility of the local population became more intense, so did the degree of indiscrete brutality for "internal security". Non-Ibo alumni of St. Patrick's College, Asaba and Government College, Ughelli, found to their chagrin that old school ties meant nothing in the new dispensation (17).

Radio broadcasts "educated" the public about the role of 'gallant' Biafran troops who had only come to liberate them from the "bondage of the feudal Hausa-Fulani oligarchy". An economic cooperation agreement was announced between the 'independent' states of Biafra and the Midwest. The truth, though, was that Ojukwu retained authority to approve all expenditures made by the Okonkwo regime and it was not until September 13th that normal postal, telephone and telegraphic services between Biafra and the Midwest were resumed (15). Counter-propaganda was indeed launched by federal radio, which appealed to the citizens of the state for loyalty and cooperation.

In this atmosphere, civil resistance and disobedience germinated, predominantly among non-Ibos. But a few Midwest Ibo-speaking soldiers and civilians did become leery about the invasion and felt the 'interference' from "across the Niger" was getting out of hand. On the other side of this opinion divide was the powerful, so-called "Enugu clique", eager to share in the destiny of the corporate Ibo nation (14). Such ambiguous sensitivities and antipathies within and between "western" and "eastern" Ibos have always existed. Long after the civil war, for example, it even affected negotiations about the creation of a proposed Anioma state (18).

The Resistance

According to an Army manual, "a resistance movement is the organized element of a disaffected population, which resists a government or occupying power with means varying from passive to violently active. Resistance movements begin to form when dissatisfaction occurs among strongly motivated individuals who cannot further their cause by peaceful and legal means". (20)

Not much has been written about the popular resistance. In their memoirs, Ademoyega (9) and Ejoor (13) make passing reference to it. Much of what we know comes from the written account of Ogbemudia (14) corroborated by oral testimony. For some reason, Alexander Madiebo ( saw things differently from his position as Commander of the Biafran Army in Enugu, even claiming in his narrative that "Benin was taken early that morning without a single loss of life, amidst frantic jubilation by the entire local population." (Italics mine) One can only wonder about which population he was referring, and the veracity of intelligence reports reaching the East (19).

Many resistance groups may have operated in the Midwest, but one in particular was organized and very effective. This group was the one formed by Chief Michael A. Ojomo in Benin on August 18th. According to Ogbemudia, "….In a short time, recruitment and training started, and volunteers came in hundreds. Soon afterwards, an effective system of hit and runs was in operation…..By 26th of August, we had assembled a reliable force of about 600 men and 180 women……" (14)

Supportive citizens, who were too old for action, donated their single and double-barrel cartridge guns. Recruits performed armed and armless combat, isolating and capturing Biafran sentries. Night raiders spat salt into the eyes of soldiers, while attractive girls distracted them with sex, obtained intelligence, and even stole their weapons. In a manner reminiscent of the Vietcong in Vietnam, corpses of freedom fighters were recovered at great peril for burial, frustrating the Biafran units who had just engaged them in firefights. In the Siluko area, 50 Biafran soldiers (about half of a company) were drowned by a group of "Ijaw, Urhobo and Itsekiri swimmers" who lost 16 men in the fight (14).

At the behest of the resistance, female cooks put all kinds of things in the meals of the Biafran soldiers. Supported by threatening letters written to harass the Biafran command, rumors spread about the risk of poisoning by locals. It is speculated that even the Administrator, Major Okonkwo, stayed away from food cooked by his official cooks, particularly if they were non-Ibo.

But all did not go well indefinitely. Undercover agents were infiltrated into the group and counter-insurgency raids on villages became more frequent and ruthless. Nine of the girls were killed, some in suspicious circumstances. Faced with threats of severe reprisals, extreme caution among the local population became the watchword.

However, by this time, they were encouraged by news of the progress of the federal army. After reorienting the movement to undertake psychological and deception missions in support of the theater commander, Major Ogbemudia himself eventually disengaged from guerrilla warfare activities to return to Army HQ in Lagos. From there, he joined the hastily organized Second Infantry Division of the Nigerian Army making its way to Benin City (14).

According to Ejoor (13), similar activities took place in the Delta. Small groups of Biafran soldiers looking for local Hausa communities in the riverine areas, were drowned by local Urhobo swimmers in the treacherous currents of the Ethiope River.

[Oral folk tales claim that even native doctors joined the resistance, using spells and 'juju' to cause unusual ailments among Biafran troops such as massive testicles, clearly an impediment to mobility!](17)