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The Tragedy of Victory
Godwin Alabi-Isama
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COVER PAGE
HALF TITLE PAGE
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT PAGE
DEDICATION
CONTENTS
FOREWORD (I)
FOREWORD (II)
FOREWORD (III)
FOREWORD (IV)
FOREWORD (V)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
PROLOGUE
PART ONE - THE EARLY YEARS
Chapter One — What Attracted Me to the Army
Military training
To the Congo
Helicopter, jeep and rat
Encounter with a hippopotamus
Politicisation of the army
Chapter Two — The Turning Point
My mother and the 4th Area Command
4th Area Command
Moses and the Red Sea
My main mission
Chapter Three — Posting to Asaba
Action time
Biafra’s first military blunder
Captured by Biafrans
Alabi-Isama, a Biafran officer?
Note from Major Ndiomu
Chapter Four — Escape from Biafran Captors
Federal troops advance
Head of State (Gowon)’s call to Lagos
Kirikiri experience
Police interrogation
Asaba-River Niger crossing and 2 Division
Significance of Kirikiri
Prison experience
My beloved mother and sister at prison’s gate
Chapter Five — Operation Tiger Claw
Loss of Captain Buba Yaro
The Famous lunch of human steak
The capture of Obubra
Chapter Six — Return from Obubra
Locals as intelligence agents
Prisioners of war dilemma
Debating the Port Harcourt attack
80 kilometres versus 480 kilometres
Concerns over Biafran counter-attack
The vanishing of Adekunle’s maps
Archibong shot for espionage
Special Forces Training
Logistics nightmare
Why Port Harcourt must be taken within 30 days
Why Adekunle was not at Calabar to Porth Harcourt 30 days’ advance
Chapter Seven — The Challenges
3MCDO Sector - Atlantic Theatre
Peculiar challenges
3MCDO Operation problems
Operational Radios
Rivers
Weather and vegetation
The people
Biafran propaganda
Transporting supplies
Building the home-made pontoon
Those who built the Pontoon
Terrain challenges to 3MCDO and Biafrans
Captain Duke, the Doubting Thomas
Port Harcourt advances organogram
The Battle Plan
The main challenges
The Logistics Team
My visit to hospitals
3MCDO ladies
Maintaining order in civil society
Visitors to 3MCDO
Contrasting 3MCDO situation with other divisions
PART TWO 3MCDO TROOPS ADVANCE: CALABAR TO PORT HARCOURT APRIL 17TH TO MAY 18TH, 1968
Chapter Eight - The 30 Days March to Port Harcourt
The Strategy and Tactics
The Nigerian Navy
Onward to Port Harcourt: The Battle for Oron
The Nigerian Air Force
The Infantry (3MCDO)
Using ‘Dilemma’ as strategy
The five-pronged attack
The Plan of Attack... Calabar — Port Harcourt Advance
D.Day = April 17th, 1968
Col. Hillary Njoku
Unorthodox 3MCDO tactics
Excerpts of Battle Plan and Instructions
The Fall of Port Harcourt
Medical facilities
Unforeseen situations
Afam Electric Power Station operation
Abana at Bakassi Peninsula
Opportunity Targets
Final battle for the capture at Port Harcourt
The radio announcements
Send-off party?
How we lost Captain Fashola and Major Isaac Adaka Boro
Port Harcourt, here we come
Port Harcourt Captured!
Adekunle arrives war front from Lagos
Chapter Nine — Adekunle in Port Harcourt
Effect of gas flaring on 3MCDO operation
Was Port Harcourt the aim?
Biafran Navy joins the fray
Akinrinade and Azuatalam
Why not advance from Bonny to Port Harcourt
Abubakar, 3MCDO’s Man Friday
Limping Civilian at Opobo
Abubakar, the Port Harcourt Administrator
Chapter Ten — Biafra Recaptures Ikot Ekpene
How Audu Jalingo lost his two legs
Mike Ajegbo wounded
Biafrans recapture Azumini, Akwete
The bombshell
Emotional Upheavals in 3MCDO
The re-organisation of 3MCDO
Chapter Eleven — OAU and the Death of Shande
3MCDO’s attack on Oguta
The attack on Owerri
Biafra recaptures Owerri
The Pincer Strategy
Death of Major Ted Hamman at Owerri
Utuk’s 16 Brigade breaks out at Owerri
Chapter Twelve — The Beginning of the end
Why Owerri was difficult
The Abagana Massacre
The Battle of the Bulge
The Plan of Operation Pincer 2
Operation Pincers 1, 2, and 3 briefing
The thinking behind Operation Pincer 1 — Operation ‘A’
The Plan of Operation Pincer 2 — Option ‘B’
The thinking behind Operation Pincer 3 — Option ‘C
The ambush
My mother insisted on seeing an attack
The death note (failed ambush)
Chapter Thirteen — Exit Adekunle, enter Obasanjo
Obasanjo’s first battle experience — a fiasco
Tragedy of Adekunle’s fall
Major blunders of the civil war by 3MCDO
The Lost Evidence (Records)
The conspiracy: Tide turns against me after Dimka’s coup
Bid to nail me begins
Can we have unity in Nigeria?
What was the outcome of the civil war
Bits and pieces of the war explained
3MCDO source of information on Biafra
Why the war lasted so long
Operation Pincer 2 was the plan
PART THREE
Chapter Fourteen — Expose on Obasanjo’s My Command
Introduction
Chapter III of My Command: The Turning Point
Chapter IV of My Command: The Midwest Operation
Chapter V of My Command: The Southern Sector
Chapter VI of My Command: Change of Command
Chapter VII of My Command: Mastering the Job
Chapter VIII of My Command: The Reorganistion
Chapter IX of My Command: Straightening the Line
Chapter X of My Command: The Link-up and Operation Tail Wind (The Final Offensive)
Chapter XI of My Command: Surrender
EPILOGUE
Godwin Alabi-Isama
The Tragedy of Victory
