"Ogbu o fa n'igwe!": The making of Ogbunigwe - Biafra's deadliest weapon

Ogbunigwe launcher displayed at the National War Museum Umuahia

Ogbunigwe is a very deadly war device developed wholly by Biafran scientists. The mere sound of Ogbunigwe  made Nigerian soldiers tremble during the 3 year Biafra-Nigeria War. The Ogbunigwe killed many Nigerian troops that till date the name still terrifies most of the soldiers who survived the war. It was perhaps the height of the scientific prowess of Biafra, demonstrating great potentials for indigenous technology as far back as 1969. 

In a bold attempt to chronicle  details the scientific and technological feat that took place in Biafra, Dr. Felix Oragwu a nuclear physicist and the arrowhead of the scientific and technological innovations that sustained secessionist Biafra during the thirty months war, details the making of Ogbuniqwe in his book titled: Scientific and Technological Innovations in Biafra: The Ogbunigwe Fame 1967 – 1970. Oragwu revealed how the Biafran scientists were assembled and how the name ogbunigwe was coined. 

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In an interview with Saturday Sun,Dr Oragwu informed narrated how the name Ogbunigwe was coined and the details of its invention.

How ogbunigwe was invented

"Between late July and early September 1967,  Biafra enjoyed air superiority over Nigerian forces by due to the possession of an old 1939-1945 war vintage B.26 Bomber. However, one early September morning in 1967, the old B.26 was, as usual, primed for action at the Enugu Airport, where the bomber was normally stationed preparatory for its routine bombing trips on military targets in Nigeria.

"A Bofors ground-to-air anti-aircraft gun located near the Enugu Airport defended the airport and the bomber. The primed B.26 bomber was ready to take off, at about 0630 hours on that fateful day to Nigeria, when suddenly there appeared a fast moving, low flying Russian MIG 15 Jet fighter, over the Enugu Airport and Biafra airspace for the first time since the war began. No member of the Science and Technology (S&T) Group before this incident had witnessed a MIG Jet fighter in action. The MIG jet fighter promptly attacked the airport and deflated the tyres of B.26 bomber, thereby immobilizing the vital warhorse.

“Later in the evening of that eventful day, the Commander of Biafra Air Force, after recovering from the shock and humiliation of the morning incident, summoned his officers, including the commander of Biafra Army engineers and some leading members of the S&T Group to the Enugu Airport for advice on the matter and what to do to bring down the low flying MIG jet fighter without the ground-to-air anti-craft guns.

“The Air Force commander, in shaking voice, informed the small group assembled of the MIG 15 Jet incidence of that morning and the implications for Biafra short-lived air superiority over Nigeria.”

With the emergence of MIG jet fighters in the federal troops’ arsenal, the use of B26 bomber, according to Oragwu, had come to an end. The ‘Bofor’ gun at the Enugu Airport had become irrelevant against fast moving low flying jet fighters. 

"Therefore, he sought for what could be done to contain the jet fighters and maintain the morale of the Biafran troops and the population at large. 

“In the course of the deliberations, a number of suggestions were made. The most viable was to find a mechanism for sending up debris, dust, small pebbles and the like in the path of the flying jet fighters in the hope that these dust particles could be sucked in by the jet fighters to impede its propulsion, asphyxiate and bring the jet fighters down. The question was what type of mechanism could be produced easily and quickly in Biafra to accomplish the task. 

“To utilize this scientific principle in throwing up the debris in the path of a fast flying Jet fighter, the S&T-Group had to solve two problems. The first was the rotation of the debris in the bucket to set up laminar flow without allowing the latter to spin, the second was to generate such a recoil that the reaction to the recoil could impart sufficient energy to the rotated debris to rise far beyond the rooftops and spread the contents over a large air space.

"William Achukwu, an Agricultural Engineer and member of the S&T Group volunteered to design and fabricate a metallic bucket-like system for the trials.

“A series of trial tests with varying masses (light materials) and sizes of the debris respectively, depending on the mass/sizes of the debris, gave excellent results achieving heights of 30-1000 feet (10-30 meters) respectively depending on the mass/sizes of the debris. 

"The Air Force commander, the military personnel present, and members of the S&T Group present who witnessed the feat achieved, were very excited and went into jubilation. Most people were convinced that the new mechanism was an answer to the jet fighters, and the S&T Group was directed to produce many of the devices to be used not only at the airports but also as air defense cover at various Biafran troop locations.

The name Ogbunigwe 

“In October 1967, the federal troops, having captured and secured Enugu, the capital of Biafra were on their way to Awka and Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of Biafra, through the old Enugu-Awka-Onitsha road. The well armed, heavily equipped federal troops, with their superior fire power, encountered a battalion of poorly equipped, out-gunned and virtually exhausted Biafran troops at the Ugwuoba Bridge, few kilometers into Awka. However, the Biafran troops had on hand some of their air defence dust mines. Unable to withstand the superior firepower of the federal troops, they began to run for their dear lives carrying along with them their air defence ‘mines’. Their resourceful commander (whose name has escaped my memory) ordered them back and commanded them to place the air defence mines horizontally rather than vertically as designed and fire them on the approaching federal troops to see what would happen and thereafter run for their dear lives. 

"The command was promptly carried out. Indeed, the federal troops could not understand what hit them. The effect of the horizontal detonation of the air defense dust mines was very devastating leading to loss of many federal troops, as well loss of large quantities of arms and ammunitions some of which got completely burnt. The devastation was, indeed, very extensive particularly in the unintended loss of military personnel, some of who died from the shock waves generated by the unexpected explosions. The mass of water, from the river below the bridge, was thrown up and widely spread by the generated waves, thus adding to the trauma of the advancing troops.

“The following morning some members of the S&T Group were summoned to Ugwuoba Bridge by the military to help explain the new phenomenon and what really had happened to make the air defense dust mines accomplish what they did. Meanwhile, the people of Amansi Awka, the neighbouring village, were called out to the scene to help in burying the dead. An elderly man from Amansi Awka on seeing the large number of dead soldiers along the bridge exclaimed in Igbo: 'ogbuefa n’igwe' (the dust mine had killed them in masses or massively). That was how the otherwise anti-aircraft “Air Dust Mine” got its name ogbunigwe (mass killer) and the S&T Group came to be referred to by the generality of the Biafra public as ogbunigwe people.

“Arising from the Ugwuoba incident, a device designed and fabricated as an anti aircraft dust mine had suddenly become useful as a ground-to-ground weapon with devastating impact beyond imagination. Its new mode of deployment provided Biafra with additional ammunitions. This incident vindicated the adage “that necessity is the mother of invention.”

Details in Scientific and Technological Innovations in Biafra: The Ogbunigwe Fame 1967 – 1970.