Adaka Boro came into prominence in 1966
when proclaimed an Independent Niger
Delta Peoples’ Republic with a flag and an emergency constitution.
He paraded himself as the General Officer Commanding
the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (DVS) and leader of the Liberation
Government.
Due to Boro’s intense agitation for resource control, it was
learnt that he formed a band of fighters and allegedly trained
them in the use of explosives and arms. Sometimes in March 1966,
Boro, armed with a theory he called XYZ, declared Ijaw Republic
thus:
“Today is a great day, not only in your lives, but in the history
of the Niger Delta. We are going to demonstrate to the world what
and how we feel about oppression”.
The activist and his followers also allegedly attacked a police
station, blew up the armoury and took rifles and ammunition.
They also reportedly blew up oil pipelines and engaged the police
in a gun battle. Boro and two of his followers, Samuel Timipre
Owonaru and Nottingham Dick were arrested and charged before
Justice Phil-Ebosie, then of the Port Harcourt High Court, Eastern
Nigeria.
Specifically, they were prosecuted for treason contrary to section
37(1) of the Criminal Code (CC).
The charge reads: Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro, Samuel Timipre
Owonaru and Nottingham Dick between the 20th day of February,
1966 and the 7th day of March, 1966 at Yenagoa in the Port Harcourt
Judicial Division and in diverse other places in the Niger
Delta levied war against the State in order to intimidate or overawe
the head of the Federal Military Government.
Although the men pleaded not guilty, the trial judge found
guilty of the offence as charged and sentenced them to death.
The trial judge held that Boro and others levied war against the
State and did so in order to frighten the government into agreeing
to their carving out an area of Nigeria as an independent republic.
This, the court declared was an offence against the enabling
proviso of the CC and it did not matter that the government had
a superior force or that its head was too far from the scene of the
plot to be frightened. Boro and others were therefore convicted.
On appeal, their counsel accepted that the men had levied war
but argued that the object of section 37 (1) of CC was to protect the
personal safety of the head of state and that to sustain the charge
it must be proved that the head of state was intimated or overawed
by fear of injury to his person.
In its verdict, the appellate court dismissed their appeal and affirmed
the decision of the lower court.
Aggrieved by the judgement, the appellants appealed to the
Supreme Court. Chief G.K.J Amachree appeared for Boro and
others while S.D Adebiyi and S.O Sogbetun represented the State.
The Supreme Court panel included the then Chief Justice of
Nigeria, Justice Adetokunbo Ademola, Justices Onyeama, G.B.A
Coker, Ajegbo and Lewis.
Delivering the lead judgement on December 5, 1966, the then
CJN, Justice Ademola, reviewed the trial and conviction of the
appellants at the lower court and held that the two main documents
admitted as exhibits were drafted by Boro and typed on his
instructions .
The court said the copies of these documents were
posted in various villages in the course of the operations of the
DVS.
According to the apex court, ‘’ after his arrest, the first appellant
(Boro ) made two detailed statements to the police in which
he admitted that he organised, and recruited men into, the DVS
and trained them in the use of firearms and explosives and that
he directed and took part in the operations.’’
Justice Ademola said it was in evidence that the other two appellants
also admitted being part of the organisation that blew up
pipelines at Odi and Oloibiri.
The Supreme Court disagreed with the submission by counsel
to the appellants that there was a difference between intimidating
and overawing the Head of State.
‘’We consider the Head of State is an embodiment of the State
and, in our view, to intimidate the Head of State is the same thing
as intimidating the State. In answer to a question from the court Mr.
Amachree admits that there can be no doubt that there was
sufficient evidence before the learned trial judge to show that
there was intent to levy war, but he said that there was nothing to
show that there was intent to intimidate or overawe.
‘’In our view, however, not only was the levying of war proved
in this case but the evidence established an intent to overawe the
Head of State of the Federal Military Government when interpreted
as the embodiment of the State as we have indicated in this
judgement it should be.’’
The apex court said the only ground of appeal before it failed
and the appeal must be dismissed.
The Supreme Court accordingly affirmed the decision of the
appellate court and also dismissed the appeal. However, fate played
out in Boro’s favour as he was, albeit temporarily, rescued from
the troubled waters. It was gathered that during the civil war, the
Yakubu Gowon regime granted him amnesty.
Despite Boro’s conviction and subsequent freedom, the Niger
Delta peo ple comprising the young, the old and women still adore
and revere him as a rare gem whose spirit continues to hang on the skies of the oil-rich region.
Boro, who attended Proccorl Primary School in Kiama and
Henry College, Warri before proceeding to University of Nigeria,
Nsukka to study Chemistry, died in mysterious circumstances in
Okrika.
It was gathered that to his kinsmen, Boro remains the most
important figure in Ijaw and Niger-Delta after Izon’, the latter being
the man reputed to have founded the Ijaw nation over half a
millennium ago. To the Ijaws, Izon occupies the place of Moses in
Jewish mythology, but after him, Boro ‘is next.’
Interestingly too, Boro’s popularity from his six-feet celestial
home at a memorial park in Port Harcourt, has continued to soar
as the intensity of the militant activities in the Niger- Delta increases.
He was the legendary environmentalist whose memory will
continue to stir curiosity, even from his grave. Every year, the Ijaws
who are his kinsmen often celebrated the annual Isaac Adaka
Boro day that often draws over 200,000 participants in the Niger
Delta.
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