The Yoruba Biafran: Few people know about Lt. Col. Victor Banjo, a Nigerian soldier of Yoruba extraction who fought on the Biafran side until his death in September 1967.
Banjo was a victim of circumstance, more than anything else. Three days after Aguiyi-Ironsi took power, he was accused of trying to kill the new head of state, arrested and detained.
He spent the next year or so being transferred to various prisons. When the Civil war broke out, Ojukwu released Banjo from a prison in the South-East and made him a colonel in the Biafran army.
Banjo was an astute military mind, winning major battles for Biafra.
Things took another sad turn when Banjo was accused of planning a coup against Ojukwu; alongside Emmanuel Ifeajuna and Phillip Alale, he was taken to the Enugu city centre, tied to a pole and shot.
