45 yrs after, Isaac Boro’s second in command opens up: ‘Stark realities of the N-Delta motivated our armed rebellion’

Vanguard

24 July 2011

45 yrs after, Isaac Boro’s second in command opens up: ‘Stark realities of the N-Delta motivated our armed rebellion’

By Gab Ejuwa

The name Isaac Adaka Boro certainly rings a loud bell in the minds of many Nigerians. Boro was the radical and fiery iconoclast who blazed the trail of activism and militancy in the Niger Delta by initiating the Kaiama Declaration, which was a clarion call for self-determination and resource control. [He was dead by that time!] As legends had it a group of Niger Deltans led by the young and fiery army officer, Major Isaac Adaka Boro, had held the nation hostage for twelve days by declaring the Niger Delta region as a separate republic from the Nigerian Federation and paralysing government activities for twelve days until they were arrested by the Aguiyi-Ironsi regime and condemned for treason. However, with the overthrow of the Ironsi regime by Yakubu Gowon, the death sentences were committed to life imprisonment which in turn was suspended as they were released from jail by Gowon. Welcome to world of Chief (Captain) Samuel Timinipre Owonaru from Kaiama, Bayelsa State, the only surviving member of Boro’s fiery force, who bared his mind 45 years after the 1966 event.

Excerpts.