Manny Ita –
Nigeria’s former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, has alleged that late Biafran leader Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu secretly imported arms and ammunition into the Eastern Region ahead of the Nigerian Civil War.
Speaking through his newly launched autobiography, My Life of Duty and Allegiance, Gowon claimed the 1967 civil war could have been avoided if agreements reached during the Aburi peace meeting in Ghana had been fully respected. According to him, Ojukwu used the negotiations partly to buy time while building military strength in preparation for conflict.
Gowon said intelligence available to the federal government at the time indicated that weapons were being smuggled into the Eastern Region from foreign countries. He specifically referenced the reported crash of a DC-4 aircraft in Northern Cameroon in October 1966, alleging it was transporting arms intended for the East.
The former military ruler explained that despite supporting calls for dialogue and non-violence during the Aburi talks, federal authorities believed Ojukwu was simultaneously strengthening Biafra’s military position. He said this later appeared confirmed when Ojukwu allegedly told a conciliation delegation in Enugu that the East had achieved “equality of arms” with the federal side.
Gowon further quoted Ojukwu as boasting that the Eastern Region possessed one of the largest armies in Black Africa and was no longer negotiating from a position of weakness. However, Gowon dismissed the claim as exaggerated, insisting federal forces still held a superior military advantage at the outbreak of the war.
The Nigerian Civil War, fought between 1967 and 1970 after the declaration of the Republic of Biafra, remains one of the country’s deadliest conflicts, with millions estimated to have died from combat, starvation and disease.
