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Former Military Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, has revealed that France provided support to late Lt-Col Odumegwu Ojukwu, to prosecute the civil war against Nigeria in hopes of controlling the mineral deposits in the proposed Biafra Republic.
The former Head of State stated this in his 859-page autobiography, My Life of Duty and Allegiance, titled “No Going Back,” launched in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said in the book that Ojukwu, mortgaged the mineral wealth of Biafra to the Rothschild banking family for $10m at the time, which was approximately N5 million at that same time.
He said this was in exchange for French-backed support for the secessionist effort.
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In the book, Gowon said that as the war intensified, France provided the rebel government with enormous support through the former African territories it controlled, with the backing provided in exchange for what France hoped to gain from a successful Biafran breakaway.
According to him, the true depth of the transaction only became known when the Nigerian Consulate in New York intercepted intelligence on a B-26 aircraft purchase routed through a South American country.
“It later emerged that this was in exchange for what they had hoped to gain from him in the event of a successful breakaway from Nigeria.
“Indeed, he had pawned the mineral wealth of Biafra to Rothschild for about $10m or an estimated N5m at the time.
“Our knowledge of this deal was fortuitous because the Nigerian Consulate in New York had intercepted information regarding the purchase of a B-26 aircraft that was to have been sent to Biafra through a South American country,” Gowon narrated.
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