During the Biafran-Nigerian civil war, there were a few Biafran sons and daughters, who were used and killed by the Hausa and Yoruba controlled Nigerian Government. Some of them were made to believe that Biafra was dominated by Igbos and would seize all the resources in Biafra lands. Isaac Adaka Boro was among the the prominent sons who were misguided.

And he paid dearly with his life for betraying the Biafran Republic. And for more than fifty years, his tribe have suffered the nemesis of his mistakes because he was misled and betrayed by his Hausa and Yoruba friends.

The storie of Isaac Adaka Boro is a great lesson for contemporary and potential betrayals of the renewed movement for the restoration of Biafran Republic.

Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro, from Kaiama (in present day Bayelsa State), was born in September 10, 1938 in Oloibiri. Isaac Boro, while studying Chemistry at University of Nigeria
Nsukka became the Student Union President of the University.

Despite the support and political patronage he got from his Igbo brothers at the university, Boro led the first revolution of resource control in Nigeria few months after Aguiyi Ironsi became the Head of State of Nigeria.

He formed the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF), the first armed militia of only Ijaw extraction. On February 23, 1966, Boro and his NDVF declared the Niger Delta Republic. This was the first time any part of Nigeria tried to secede. He believed that the Ijaw people deserved a reasonable share of proceeds of the oil wealth than they were getting from the Federal Government.

For twelve days Boro and his militias battled the Federal forces before they were finally defeated by the far superior Federal firepower. Isaac Boro and some of his men were convicted of treason and sentenced to death, but Ironsi out of mercy decided to jail him instead of killing him as demanded by the law.

On the eve of the Biafran-Nigerian war in May 1967, then Nigerian Head of State Yakubu Gowon granted him amnesty and drafted him into the Nigerian Army. He was afterwards commissioned as a major in the Nigerian Army. With his army of 1000 Ijaw soldiers. He fought alongside Col. Benjamin Adekunle, who was heading the 3rd Marine Commando Division of the Nigerian army.

With deep knowledge of the Niger Delta creeks, Boro and his men fought along-side the Nigerian troops to push back the Biafran soldiers of the region.

Isaac Boro was betrayed by the Nigerian forces he trusted. On May 16, 1968, after a successful gun battle against Biafran forces at Ogu (near Okrika) in Rivers State, Boro was ambushed by what many of his men then believed was a unit sent by Col. Adekunle. In a brief and fierce battle, Adenkunle’s men gunned him down.

His death went down in history as mysterious as there was no conclusive evidence on who assassinated Boro. Strong allegations pointed to treacherous Col. Adekunle, envied by Boro’s rising prominence in the Nigerian Army, Ordered the assassination of Boro in order to seize the glories which Boro enabled the 3 Marine Commando Division to achieve.

Subsequent to Boro’s death, Adekunle took all the credits of the achievements of the division.

A Regimental Sergeant Major under Boro was quoted saying "Boro did not die in the heat of battle with the Biafran forces". He said, the area had already been captured and secured by their troops and Major Boro was on an inspection tour when they came under fire. The type of gunfire that erupted during the gun battle that killed Boro was completely different from what the Biafrans were known to use in that area of the war. This confirmed to them that it was one of the federal troops units that carried out the ambush. As soon as Boro died, his 1000 band of soldiers was disbanded.

According to Olusegun Obasanjo in his book My Command, Adekunle’s post-war political ambition pushed him into assassinating Boro, as he was using the war to building a ‘formidable’ name for himself. Obasanjo stated that “Col.
Adekunle, at this point saw the war not only in terms of crushing a rebellion, but also as a means of building himself up for any future political position or responsibility which he
might wish to seek, I knew of people of Western State origin who had felt politically victimized and who saw in Col.Adekunle a saviour and told him so, and he believed them.”

What Boro fought and died for had eluded his people for years. Niger Delta has remained impoverished despite the huge revenue it has continued to generate for the country. Oil fields and mining leases have been allocated to northern oligarchs and friends.

Isaac Boro remains a lesson for future
revolutionaries in knowing where to pitch their tent.