Inspired by the author’s harrowing experiences, Oluwa Street Evil Mobs 1967 explores the brutal torture and ruthless killings targeting innocent Igbo people and other Nigerians wrongly profiled in 1967 Lagos amid the raging Nigerian/Biafran War. This sobering work implores present-day Nigerian political and military leaders to reflect deeply on past bloody mistakes as they navigate complex dynamics risking further conflict. The catastrophic failures spanning tribal, religious, and political divides throughout the three-year war must not be forgotten. Today’s tenuous peace requires re-examining volatile misunderstandings that engulf nationhood when weaponized instead of addressed through compassionate leadership seeking reconciliation. Are darker forces again exploiting divisions? Have lessons been learned? Does real and lasting peace exist for all in Nigeria? By confronting painful history, Oluwa Street Evil Mobs 1967 sounds an urgent call for breaking destructive cycles that allow persecution of any ethnic group under the excuses of war. There must be accountability along with healing so the innocent victims documented here are honoured through non-repetition – and community replaces suspicion as guiding light.
Mazi Ted Smarth Ikechukwu Aguzien was born in Port Harcourt in May 1948. Heis a native of Umudim, in Isiekenesi Ideato Local Government Area, Imo State, in Nigeria, West Africa. He has written this book because, when he was growing up as a little boy, he was a very happy boy up to the age of 18 years old, until that fateful day, the ruthless and bloody military counter coup of 29th July, 1966, led by Theophilus Danjuma, Yakubu Gowon, Hassan Katsina, and a whole lot of them military officers took place and destroyed his childhood-growing happiness. When he was a little boy, he had wanted to be a good singer and a good footballer. He has always wanted to entertain people and make them feel happy, and he thinks happiness is something you find in yourself, people around you, your environment, on the field of playing football and entertainment. But he was denied all of these joys because of their tribal hunger for leadership.