Niger Delta Republic

By Elagha Isaac


 

On February 23, 1966, the autonomous Niger Delta Republic was declared by Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro, who believed the people of the area, mostly Ijaw, deserved a larger share of the proceeds of the oil wealth, and considered armed revolt as the only way to ensure that. 

He formed the Niger Delta Volunteer Force, an armed militia with members consisting mainly of his fellow Ijaw ethnic group, and fought with federal forces for 12 days before being defeated. 

He and his comrades were jailed for treason, but Boro was granted amnesty by General Yakubu Gowon  on the eve of the Nigerian civil war in May 1967, and commissioned as a major in the Nigerian army. He died in 1968 at Ogu, near Okrika, in Rivers State. 


Comments

  1. He's good man who sacrificed himself for the benefit of all

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