Showing posts with label Captain Paul Ogbebor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Captain Paul Ogbebor. Show all posts

Monday, June 6, 2022

Ndigbo: Caught Between And Betwixt In Nigeria (2)



By Ichie Tiko Okoye 

The congeniality of the still morning air along the Nsukka-Gakem-Ogoja and Nsukka-Oturkpo bifurcation was shattered by the thudding sound of mortar fire and the cacophony of exiting bullets sounding as if the demons of hell were on a rampage. 

A lingering bank of smoke, thick and vile-smelling, rolled across the highway. Sleeping birds protested the intrusion by flapping angrily up from the trees and wheeling overhead. The long-anticipated war had commenced in full earnest. Time was exactly 5a.m. on Friday, July 6, 1967. 

According to a declassified American diplomatic dispatch, three days after Nigeria’s ‘First Girlfriend,’ Edith Ike had been securely ensconced in West Germany, Gowon addressed the attendees of the 3 July 1967 Supreme Military Council meeting as follows: “Gentlemen, we are going to crush the rebellion.” It was hardly a reconciliatory message, and although he added that “But note that we are going after the rebels, not the Ibos,” those the message was intended for knew fully well that the speech had two parts.