“He had some supernatural powers, he could disappear like an apparition, bullets tend to water on coming in contact with his skin.” These and more were the confessions from colleagues, friends and foes alike who fought the brutal 3-year Biafra war with the late General Joe Achuzia, famously known as ‘Air Raid’. These mysteries/confessions are difficult to comprehend and its accessibility is not within the reach of an ordinary man. But to an ordinary man, these are jocular assertions that hold no water because ex-raying its meaning is as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.
Gen. Achuzia, who was the most successful of all Biafran commanders, was born on 1929. Achuzia, the synopsis of a real Biafran soldier, was in the Nigerian army but later escaped to his homeland(Eastern region) which he held dear in 1967, to roll into one with fellow easterners due to the barrage of killings of his people, in order to take the bull which was like a pain in the neck of his people, by its horns. He died on 26th February 2018.
Though he has shuffled off this mortal coil to go join the invisible choir of the Biafran warlords, the crescendos and the diminuendos of his unprecedented accomplishments by valor in the world during the Biafran war, which are above elephant size, top of the pile is the “Abagana Ambush,” are still resonating till date. This black “Air Raid” fired just a single indigenous Biafran invented rocket bomb called Rocket Ogbunigwe (Monster Bomb), which engulfed the entire two hundred (200) vehicles that a Nigerian commander by name Murtala Rafai Ramat Muhammed was leading to the East.
Achuzie, who was a roving commander, a no-nonsense commander, was known as the last man standing during the war. He was a soldier who takes delight in saying the truth always; this l know is the source of his supernatural power. To him, “if truth is axiomatic and light so magnetic, then l cannot be destroyed by mere mortal.” Through Achuzie during the war, Noah Kartz’s (an Israeli ambassador to Nigeria) statement when he said that he knows that the Biafrans are related to Israel by blood, has been vindicated. According to the Torah (Holy Bible), Yahweh promised Israelites that any of them can pursue a thousand men. Indeed, Gen. Joe Achuzie really showed off what stuff Africa would have been made of if only the western world had allowed her to remain as a sovereign state of its own.
“We didn’t surrender. If there was a surrender, there must be a surrender term agreement. There must be a paper to that effect. Let them publish the terms of surrender so that the country will know,” these were the words of the General. He never feared saying the truth even when he is facing death. He fearlessly confessed that Nigeria was originally on a tripod of South-east region, South-west region and Northern region; a truth feared by the lily-livered men in the East.
In this year’s Biafra Heroes’ and Heroines’ Remembrance Day, Biafrans in one camaraderie, one accord and of one voice, stand still to salute you the hero for your bravery and stoutness that is second to none in the world at large. We remember your sacrifices. We promise you that this trend of intrepid Biafran warriors in IPOB, with their leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, will stop at nothing in fighting for the same cause which you believe and fought for — the freedom of the Biafran people. We love you as you have gone to continue the fight from the spiritual realm. Requiescat in peace my hero, in Chukwu Okike Abiama’s name, Ise! Ise! Isee!
