The Battles of Ore, Nsukka & Midwest The Nigerian Civil War

As the predominantly northern nigerian army marched in connell hassan katsina mocked at the biafran army of pain pushers and predicted a quick victory because of their superior speed ingenuity and resourcefulness the biafrans believed that if they could hold out for a few months the nigerians would recognize the folly of the war and returned home or negotiates neither of these turned out to be correct hello hello hello his place welcome to another episode of lisbon media gabriel here fighting started on july 6 1967 with an artillery bombardment against ogoja a

00:41
town near the northern region’s border

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in biafra’s northeast corner

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in what camelo juco recognized as a

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diversionary attack two federal

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battalions faced the biafrans

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the real attack took place further west

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near insuka an affluent market town that

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had recently been blessed with the

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university of insuka which had been

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renamed university of biafra

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on july 8th the remaining six battalions

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of the nigerian army camped in the main

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asics near insuka marched in

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they pushed roughly four miles before

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becoming stranded

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the biafrans fought back tenaciously

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despite having only about three thousand

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men in arms in that sector compared to

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the nigerians with about 6 000 men and a

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handful of light arms and ammunition

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the nigerians were able to seize and

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destroy the town of insuka as well as

01:35
the university but they were unable to

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go any further the towns of nyaya and

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gakim in ogoja province were captured

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and brought into range of the artillery

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the biafrans would now form a defensive

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line along a river to the south of the

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towns

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the fightings would hold here and the

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situation appeared to be or perhaps

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remained calm

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after two weeks of immobility of the

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biafran forces the federal government

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would start broadcasting that several

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biafran towns have been captured to

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those in enugu which encompassed the

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whole population including expatriate it

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appeared that someone in lagos was

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randomly poking pins in a map

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after three weeks the nigerians ran into

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problem when two of their battalions

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were trapped and broken up to the east

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of insuka between the major road and the

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railway line after being cut off from

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the rest

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to salvage the situation two more

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scratched battalions made up of training

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staff and trainees would be deployed

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into the insuka azeks by the nigerians

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in the air fighting was confined to the

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exploit of the lone biafran b-26

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american belt second world war bomba

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piloted by a pool named kamikaze brown

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and to six french belt allude

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helicopters piloted by biafrans from

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which the reinhard grenades and homemade

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bombs on the nigerians

02:58
on july 25 the nigerian staged an

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unexpected seabourn attack on the island

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of bonnie south of potarcott this was a

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spectacular coup in an increasingly

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useless war

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bonnie was the oil loading terminal for

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the shell bp pipeline from potaco and a

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major source of revenue

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however it was worthless militarily

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because after being worn the biafrans

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relentlessly patrolled the waters not of

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bunny and other subsequent nigerian

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attempts to launch more waterborne

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attacks noteworts on the mainland around

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potharkod were repaired

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on august 9 the biafran struck in

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english with a coup that shook observers

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both in biafra and lagos

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starting at down a mobile brigade of

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three thousand men they had carefully

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prepared in secret swept across the

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unitia bridge into the midwest

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in ten hours of daylight the region had

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fallen and the towns of worry sapele oil

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center at ugali agbo urami ubiyaja and

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benite city were occupied by biafran

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forces

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of the small army of the midwest nothing

04:10
was heard

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the capture of the midwest changed the

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balance of the war and put the whole of

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nigeria’s oil resources on ibiafran

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control

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at this time biafra had taken about 20

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000 square miles of nigeria’s territory

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but loses around 500 square miles of her

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own land in three minus sections along

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the periphery

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more importantly the entire nigerian

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infantry force was thousands of

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kilometers away on the other side

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with the niger river separating them

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from the routes leading back to the

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capital in lagos they were unable to act

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the road to lagos was open and

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undefended for the biafra france

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konolujuku then went to great lengths to

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appease the midwest non-igbo population

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and assure them that it means no harm to

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them

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for about a week delegation of tribal

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chiefs bankers traders chambers of

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commerce representatives army personnel

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and church dignitaries came to inugo to

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visit the biafran leader and be

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reassured

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konelo juco anticipated that forming an

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alliance with two of the three southern

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regions would persuade the west and

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force the federal government to

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negotiate after a week it became clear

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that this would not be the case anujoku

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gave the order for biafran army to

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advance westward

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the biafrans crossed the ofuso river

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bridge which marks the border with the

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western region on august 16th a brief

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brawl ensured with nigerian troops who

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subsequently withdrew

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the biafrans were jubilant as they

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inspected and injured undead it

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indicates that the nigerian troops were

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from the federal guard gowan’s personal

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bodyguard of 500 tips who were

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ordinarily stationed in lagos it was

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assumed that if he had to use this there

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must be nothing else available

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on august 28th the air france invaded

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ore a town 35 miles west of lagos and

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230 miles west of enugu here the

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nigerian army comprising mostly thief

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soldiers of the federal guards got even

06:15
their worst beating this time and they

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abjectly retreated in this order

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to own lucas at the time it appeared

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that only 10 weeks after the arab

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israeli war another military miracle had

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happened with tiny biafra overtrain

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nigeria’s government

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a sudden motorized push at that time

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along any one of three major roads

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available would have put biafran forces

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deep into the yoruba heartland under the

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gates of lagos

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such was the order ojuku gave to his

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forces

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according to sources inside the american

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embassy on august 20th the westerners

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were on the verge of adopting the policy

06:53
of our peace in the biafrans in order to

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save their skins gohan had ordered his

06:57
private plane to be prepared for a

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flight back to zarya in the north

07:01
british high commissioner sir david hunt

07:04
and the american ambassador mr james

07:06
matthews allegedly had a long and

07:08
serious talk would go on in the barracks

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it was after these talks that the novels

07:13
go on agreed to stay back and fight

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the news of this intervention reached

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ojuku causing outrage among british and

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american citizens in biafra the decision

07:24
of gohan to stay on saved his government

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from collapse and ensured the

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continuation of the war

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had he fled however there seems little

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doubt the west would have swung over and

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nigeria would have developed into a

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configuration of three states

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the biafran’s suspicion had been that

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the carrots that tempted gohan and his

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fellow minority men to stay in power was

07:46
the pledge of british and american aid

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certainly the aid followed hard and fast

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from that date

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the fall of the midwest had one other

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byproduct it opened nigeria’s eye to the

07:58
fact that they were fighting a war

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the federal military government had

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underestimated biafra from day one but

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the biafrans took advantage of this

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obvious mistake from the government and

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now have the war seemingly under control

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this was quickly allowed to sleep

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in five the biafran forces only got as

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far as ori

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meanwhile another unexpected tone of

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events had happened unknown to everyone

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the commander of the biafran forces in

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the midwest haton traitor

08:29
victor banjo was a euroba who served in

08:31
an engineering army as a major before

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being imprisoned by general iransi for

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allegedly plotting against him his

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prison was in the eastern region

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from here he was released by canelo juco

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at the outbreak of the war and given a

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commission in the biafran army

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while ojuku chooses banjo to command the

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troops marching towards the west has not

08:51
been fully explained

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but the two soldiers were good friends

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anujoku had full confidence in his

08:57
abilities

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secondly being a euroba from western

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region banjo was familiar with the

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terrain and could use the language to

09:05
convince the euro bars in the occupied

09:07
territories to support the war

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with the rank of brigadier banjo

09:11
commanded the s brigade that marched

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into the midwest and down to array

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according to his own confession after he

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was unmasked and arrested he had

09:20
concluded after august 9 that he would

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enter into talks with the leaders of the

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west notably chief awoluwo

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he asked aegio to act as a mediator

09:29
between himself and a wall of war but

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ajo declined to take the risk

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according to banjo he will later relay

09:37
messages using the sideband radio of

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british deputy high commission in benin

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a british official communicated these

09:44
messages in german to another official

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in the high commission in lagos the

09:48
message was passed on to chief aolo

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the plot banjo revealed was typically

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yoruba in its complexity

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he wants to destroy biafra by

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withdrawing troops on the midwest under

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various pretexts arrest and assassinate

10:03
and declare the war over

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he would subsequently return to his own

10:08
region as a nigerian hero his past would

10:10
now be forgiven and forgotten

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he went on to say that the second part

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of the plan which would be revealed

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later was for him and a world war to

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rally the newly recruited yoruba army to

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his cause and top will go on this would

10:24
allow him take over the presidency of

10:26
nigeria and give awol over his long

desired premiership

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it seems unlikely though that the gowan

10:32
government was informed of these

10:34
postscripts

10:36
connell ifiya arjuna who had also been

10:38
released from prison a mosquito and

10:40
communist officer major philippe allele

10:43
a biafran foreign service official sam

10:45
akbam who did some of the negotiation

10:47
between the two sides while out of

10:49
biafra and several other junior officers

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and functionaries were all recruited

10:54
into banjo’s cloth he was ready to

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execute this plot by mid-september

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despite being frustrated by the lack of

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action in the west konelojoku continued

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to believe banjo and accept his claims

11:07
of administrative issues manpower

11:09
shortages lack of firearms and

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ammunition and so on true the nigerians

11:15
had grown stronger in the three weeks

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that has passed

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the nigerians had formed two french

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brigades through a hasty one-week

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recruitment campaign that brought into

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uniform diverse elements such as college

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students and prison inmates

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this was the second division that was

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commanded by conde morita mohammed the

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division fought back from the western

11:36
region

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as late as the first week of september

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the deployment of swift motorized column

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could have put the biafrans in a

11:45
commanding position in the western

11:46
region

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but on september 12th banjo gave others

11:50
to withdraw from benin city without

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firing a shot he was not authorized to

11:55
do so muhammad didn’t arrive in benin

11:58
until september 21st banjo also issued

12:01
others to withdraw from warri sapele

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algae igueben and other strategic

12:06
locations the biafran subordinate

12:09
officers were surprised and confused but

12:12
they did as they were told

12:14
simultaneously biafran defenses south of

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insuka crumbled and the federal forces

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advanced many miles down the road to

12:21
enugu 45 miles south of insuka at this

12:25
point banjo decided to attack ojuku

12:28
directly

12:29
in a midwest he met with ife arjuna

12:32
analeigh to finalize the plans for the

12:34
assassination which was to take place on

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september 19th 19 coinciding with

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banjo’s presence in enugu where he had

12:40
been asked to explain what he was doing

12:42
in midwest

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none of the three seemed to realize that

12:46
time had run out

12:48
surprisingly they had told several other

12:51
officers and civilians about the plans

12:53
without first checking to see if they

12:55
would remain faithful to ojuku

12:57
in fact most of them did but some had

13:00
already gone to meet him with the

13:02
details of the plot

13:04
it took a lot of persuasion to convince

13:06
him but the fact were beginning to speak

13:08
for themselves

13:10
if arjuna and allele were each summoned

13:12
to state house where ojuku met them and

13:14
ordered their arrest banjo was summoned

13:17
as well but he arrived with a strong

13:19
escort of men who he wanted to bring

13:22
into the premises

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he was convinced that they could remain

13:25
at the entrance until he returned while

13:27
he went in alone but armed he agreed

13:32
connell ojuku’s police adc a clever

13:35
young inspector went out to the guard

13:37
post with a bottle of chin while he was

13:39
waiting in the auntie room he offered

13:42
them to come to his place nearby to

13:44
enjoy some more after passing it around

13:46
they all agreed and mashed off

13:49
watchers inside state house observed

13:51
their departure and then swung their

13:52
automatic weapons at banjo

13:55
he was disarmed before being led to see

13:58
the biafran leader it was six hours to

14:00
the time konnelujuku should have been

14:02
assassinated being close to midnight on

14:05
september 18. the army became

14:07
traumatized and demoralized

14:10
even though the ordinary soldier

14:12
remained loyal to ojuku the entire

14:14
officer cops was discredited

14:17
although turned by his friendship with

14:19
banjo and a relation by marriage to

14:21
allele ojuku had to set an example to

14:24
avoid a repeat of this kind of plot the

14:26
foreign leaders were tried by special

14:28
tribunal sentenced to death for high

14:30
treason and executed by firing squad on

14:33
september 22 1967

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the exact degree of complicity of some

14:39
of the british officials in nigeria

14:42
remained a matter of speculation in

14:44
biafra in his confession though banjo

14:47
implicated the british deputy high

14:48
commission in benin and the high

14:50
commission in lagos as having been his

14:52
lawyers in maine which are willow and go

14:55
on correspondence in lagos later

14:57
remarked they had noticed a sudden

14:59
buoyancy among british officials in the

15:01
middle of september a confident

15:03
assurance that it would all be over in a

15:06
few days

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this was in stark contrast to the near

15:10
panic of 20th august and a prophecy

15:13
hardly merited by the military situation

15:16
but after the attempted coup against

15:18
ojuku things actually changed

15:21
the damage in biafra was enormous we

15:24
will look at what happened from now on in our subsequent video you’ll be doing us a massive favor by liking this video so that more people can see it subscribe if you have not done so and i will see you in the next video thank you very much for watching peace