Biafra: How We Ended Civil War – Gen Akinrinade

Former Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Staff, Alani Akinrinade, has revealed how the Biafra Civil war that lasted for three years was ended by him and another military officer.

Akinrinade, while speaking on the civil war, noted that the strategy employed by him and General Alabi Isama. retd brought an end to the war.

The former CDS while speaking with Vanguard noted that it took days for him and Isama to prepare the strategy which ended the civil war.

He said: “The tactics we finally used in ending the war was a document that Alabi Isama and I prepared. We spent days and nights preparing it because the last time we were with Adekunle, he showed that he was becoming distrustful of us. He was not happy with some of the things he thought we were doing.”

“He felt that we no longer believed him. That was how he posted us out of his headquarters. Alabi Isama was in the 3rd Sector while I was in the 2nd Sector. That was another mistake he made. The two sectors were adjacent to each other. Alabi Isama was in Uyo, I was in Aba. Ayo Ariyo, who was our classmate but much older than us was in Calabar. He put someone else in the 1st Division.”

“The person was our senior but we didn’t get along with him. I served with him in the 2nd Division. When I quarreled with my GOC he was there sitting down and said nothing. They were just sitting down and allowing the GOC to do whatever he wanted. When he ended up in the 3rd Division, I didn’t want to do anything with him. What they didn’t know was that we had stabilised our side.”

“It was the work both of us had done that we used in ending the war. We told ourselves that finishing the war was not difficult. We presented the plan to Adekunle. Whether he studied it or not, we were not sure. All he wrote on the plan was “this is tactics lesson one, when are my expecting the next tuition?” That was how we left him and returned to our sectors.”

“It was the plan that we brushed up and we didn’t tell Obasanjo that we were going to execute it. We went ahead to execute it because we were tired of being in the front. It was a war that should have lasted for one year. But it lasted for 30 months. That was why he knew so much about what we did even though he (Obasanjo) was no more there. Tomoye was there.”