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28, 1967
One Day We Had to Run!
January 4-5, 1967: Military leaders held a peace conference in Aburi, Ghana.
On April 28, 1967:
mother came to Saint George's Grammar School. "We are running," she said.
April 30, 1967:
Dad went to Agbor Motor Park and rented a mammy-wagon with the inscription "No Condition is Permanent" to take us to Onitsha. We joined the mass exodus of two million Igbo refugees that were fleeing from ethnic cleansing in which 50,000 Igbos were killed.
May 30, 1967:
The new nation of Biafra was created from south-eastern Nigeria.
June 3, 1967:
Nigeria imposed a naval blockade of Biafra.
July 1, 1967:
Secessionist leader Ojukwu officially dismissed from the Nigerian army.
July 6, 1967:
The first fighting begins at 5:30 a.m. when Nigerian soldiers attacked Biafran soldiers at Vanderkya in Benue State. A few hours later the Nigerian soldiers attacked Biafran soldiers at the Nsukka sector.
August 9, 1967, 3 a.m.:
Three thousand lightly armed (with Mark IV bolt-action rifles) Biafran soldiers led by Yoruba-speaking Victor Banjo "liberates" the then midwestern region of Nigeria. The entire Midwest was overran within 12 hours. The Midwest governor, Urhobo-speaking Lt. Col. David Ejoor, narrowly escaped death and slipped out of the Midwest to the Nigerian side.
August 17, 1967:
Major Albert Nwazu Okonkwo, a medical officer, was appointed (by Ojukwu) as the new governor. [I met Okonkwo in person in late 1969 when he visited Ndoni to chair a highlife music event by Emperor Jenewari (spelling).]
September 19, 1967:
Midwest region becomes the Republic of Benin.
September 20, 1967:
Nigerian army recaptures Benin City.
Dance of Death
Posted by emeagwali at 28, 1967 04:14