The unbelievable story of a 78-yr-old grandfather, who was shot point-blank by Nigerian soldiers during the Nigeria-Biafra war alongside others, but miraculously survived gun shots and the trauma that came with them.
Enjoy the story as garnered by Emeka Mama for Nigeria’s popular Newspaper, Vanguard.
A 78-year old grandfather, from Umuabugu Eje, Umuissai, Imufu Enugu Ezike, Mr Thomas Ogbu Nwaojobo, was captured as a young boy and ‘’executed’’ alongside his elder brother, Lawrence by Nigerian soldiers during the Nigeria – Biafra civil war in 1967. The incident occurred at Enugu- Ezike, in the present Igboeze North Local Government Area of Enugu State.
Both Lawrence and Thomas had their hands tied behind their backs and taken to a deserted compound at Mkpamte, near Ogurute, the Local Government Headquarters.
The soldiers ordered them to lie face down before being shot point- blank, one after the other from the back. Lawrence died instantly alongside other captives but Thomas survived. How?
Two days after he was shot at and taken for dead at Mkpamte, Thomas “resurrected.” He was discovered to be alive by an old man who had gone with a hoe to bury the bodies of those executed in a shallow grave. The stench oozing from the execution ground compelled the man to get to the bodies to bury them. He saw that Thomas was alive with his two eyes wide open. The old man then untied his hands. Thomas, however, pleaded with the old man to be checking on him to know when he would eventually die, so as to bury him so that vultures would not feast on his dead body.
Miraculously, Thomas later found his way back to his father’s house after crawling and trekking for six days and nights, without food or water. He managed to reach his father’s house when parts of his intestines had got rotten but were treated by villagers with herbs and later by a popular chemist who was also later killed by the Nigerian soldiers.
Fast-forward to Today
Thomas, now about 78, spoke to Nigeria’s Saturday Vanguard on his miraculous escape and life after his “execution” and “resurrection.”
Hear him:
“I am from Umuabugu Eje, Umuossai, in Imufu Enugu Ezike, in the present Igbo Eze North Local Government Area, Enugu State. I was baptised in 1959 as a Catholic and was told I was 10 years old then. They said I was born in 1949 or earlier but I should be about 78 years now or thereabout. We were then in the old Eastern Region. Before the Nigeria – Biafran civil war, I was an apprentice at the University town of Nsukka in Enugu State.
“Before the civil war, there was another local war between the people of Enugu-Ezike in the present Igboeze North Local Government Area, and its border town neighbour, Ofante in Kogi State. The war preceded the civil war. During that war, the Ofante people killed our war hero, Ogbu Nwugbabe from Aji, Enugu Ezike. Ogbu Nwugbabe had what we now call ‘Odieshi’, an antidote for dane guns which was in vogue then. It was used in fighting the Ofante war. He was our war Commander.
Ogbu Nwugbabe had killed an Ofante man, whose son was a Nigerian soldier. So, the son of the Ofante man returned home with his military rifle and joined his native people in the battlefield and shot several of Enugu Ezike people, including Ogbu Nwugbabe who, it was believed, could not be killed with any gun. They later brought his headless corpse to the then District Officer, DO, at Nsukka, where it was confirmed that the bullet that felled him was from a military rifle.
” Shortly after his killing, the local war ended and the Nigeria–Biafra civil war started. “I had then left Nsukka to collect food items from home, since I was living alone as an apprentice. I was learning auto- re-wiring and battery charging at Nsukka. However, after collecting the food items, I came out to Ogurute, the headquarters of the old Igboeze North Local Government Council to board a vehicle to Nsukka but could not get any vehicle because the civil war had started and the Nigerian soldiers had overrun our area. I then trekked to Nsukka which was a distance of over 12 kilometres. I was young then and didn’t understand the import of the soldiers at Enugu Ezike abandoning their make-shift barracks and duty posts
