Captain Ben Gbulie, a man who played a key role in Nigeria’s first military coup of January 1966 is dead, POLITICS NIGERIA reports.
Gbulie, who hails from Nimo in Njikoka local government area of Anambra state, died on Sunday evening.
The deceased was imprisoned when the 1966 coup failed, went to war on the side of Biafra, survived a gun wound and ended up in prison again at the end of the civil war.
In his lifetime, he wrote a book on the Nigerian-Biafran civil war.
More about late Biafra soldier, Col. Gbulie
Col. Gbulie is widely known for his role in the January 1966 coup in which he and other majors and captains upturned the political and military status quo in the country. Having been detained in Enugu State alongside Victor Banjo and others who participated actively in the coup by the Federal Government, he was subsequently released by Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu at the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War in 1967.
He rose to the rank of a Colonel in the Biafran Army where he held important positions which included the de facto commander of the 7th battalion, Nsukka, Supply and Transport and later as the Military Administrator of Aba Province.
Tributes have been pouring in for late Gbulie.
Adiu colonel. I knew more about u in a book titled ‘why we struck’ by Adewale Ademoyega