Books

888 Days in Biafra

Product Description

No book about the Nigerian civil war has up to date provided as revealing an account of the prison conditions of wartime “Biafra.” In this book, Engr. Sam Umweni, then Officer-in-Charge of Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation in Benin, chronicles his abduction and survival under detention by Biafran rebel troops who had invaded the Midwest region from across the River Niger on August 9, 1967. Along with Messrs Joseph Imokhuede (Head of the Midwest Civil Service), Joseph Adeola (Commissioner of Police, Midwest) and Olu Akpata (Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade and Industry), he remained in detention and imprisonment without justification or trial in various Biafran prisons until the end of the Nigerian civil war on January 12, 1970.

About the Author

The Nigerian civil war raged from 1967 to 1970. As Head of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, Benin-City, in the Midwest Region, Sam Umweni was abducted on August 12, 1967 by invading rebel troops. He was detained in “Biafra” until the war ended on January 12, 1970. This is his story.

Review

R. Akpata "Soccer Star - Spinning Star" (Long Beach, CA USA)

My uncle was one of those arrested along with the author. Although expecting to get more than the passing detail I got from "Why We Struck" by Ademoyega on my uncle's incarceration, unfortunately I found out that he (my uncle) was in a different prison from the author (Sam Umweni). That said; phrases from the text such as "He's gone to post a letter to Gowon": term for someone who has just died of starvation in prison, will remain with me for ever.

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