A successful arms dealer, Francis Arthur Nzeribe sold weapons to both Nigeria and Biafra during the 30-month Nigerian Civil War. As a matter of fact, Nzeribe traded arms in every single place there had been a conflict in Africa.
In the 1960s, Nzeribe worked for Kwame Nkrumah as a speechwriter but after the coup that sent Nkrumah and his aides to Conakry, Nzeribe sneaked back to Ghana to work for the new government that had overthrown his principal.
In April 1969, Nzeribe was involved in a bribery scandal with Ghana's Head-of-State, Joseph Arthur Ankrah which forced the latter to resign. In 1979, J.J Rawlings deported the Nigerian businessman from Ghana where he found his way to the UK to continue his arms-dealing business.
In 1970, after the civil war, Nzeribe returned to Nigeria to open his first company, FANS Holdings Limited.
In 1993, Nzeribe's Association for Better Nigeria approached the court on the basis of corruption and rigging to stop the announcement of the June 12, 1993, election results, which ultimately led to the annulment of the election.
In May 2000, now a Senator in Nigeria's Fourth Republic, Arthur Nzeribe asked the National Assembly to impeach President Olusegun Obasanjo based on the non-resolution of the Sharia law controversy, stating that it was to the detriment of Muslims.
Most Igbo people, Nzeribe's kinsmen, were flabbergasted as most victims of the carnage in Kaduna between February 21 and 23, 2000, over the proposed adoption of the Muslim legal regime were Eastern Nigerians while the perpetrators were Islamic fanatics. #HistoryVille
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John "Mad Jack" Churchill was the last British soldier to go to war with a bow and arrows, and a sword. And he did it during the Second World War!
His motto was: "Any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed."
Over the course of the war, Mad Jack killed German soldiers with his arrows and captured 42 of them as prisoners at sword-point during the Allied Invasion of Sicily in July 1943.
However, in May 1944, the Germans captured him and flew him to Berlin thinking he was related to the famous British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. After much interrogation which yielded no result, Hitler sent him to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi (ruled 1888–1897) was the last Oba of the Old Benin kingdom before the British punitive expedition of 1897 led to his capture, exile, incarceration and eventual death in Calabar on January 1, 1914.
The Benin Expedition of 1897 was a punitive one by a British force of 1,200 under Rear-Admiral Sir Harry Rawson in response to the defeat of a previous British-led pseudo-invasion force under Acting Consul-General James Philips (which had left all but two men dead).
On January 12, 1897, Rear-Admiral Sir Harry Rawson, commanding the squadron at the Cape of Good Hope, was appointed by the British Admiralty to lead an expedition to capture the Benin king and destroy Benin City.
The largest church building in Africa, the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro, is located in Yamoussoukro the capital of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast).
The basilica was constructed between 1985 and 1989 for an estimated $600 million.
The cornerstone was laid on August 10, 1985, and it was consecrated on September 10, 1990, by Pope John Paul II, who had just formally accepted the basilica as a gift from President Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Côte d'Ivoire on behalf of the Catholic Church.
Houphouët-Boigny chose his birthplace of Yamoussoukro to be the future site of the new capital city of his country in 1983.
As part of the plan for the city, the president wanted to memorialise himself with the construction of what he called the greatest church in the world.
The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III was the longest-reigning ruler of the kingdom since his great-grandfather, Oba Atiba Atobatele founded New Oyo in the 1830s.
A direct descendant of Oranyan (founder of the Old Oyo Empire), Adeyemi III was also a boxer before ascending the throne of his fathers after the Nigerian Civil War.
Crowned on November 18, 1970, while succeeding Oba Gbadegesin Ladigbolu I, Iku Baba Yeye, as he was known popularly, would rule for 51 years and 5 months. The longest reign since Alaafin Oluaso in the 1400s.
On February 26, 2015, the body of a 26-year-old corps member, identified as Ernest, was recovered from his one-room apartment in Obubra, Cross River State of Nigeria after he reportedly committed suicide.
The young man, who was in love with a fellow female corp member, Chioma Okewuru, went berserk when the girl came back from her village over the weekend with a ring from a man she had promised to marry.
Ernest, who hailed from Edo State and an alumnus of the University of Benin, was posted to Cross River State in October 2014, where he met and fell in love with Chioma.
Bashorun Gaa became the head of the Oyo Mesi during the reign of Alaafin Onisile. He was a brave and powerful man who was feared by the people of Oyo-Ile for his potent charms and supernatural strength. It was said that he had the powers to transform into any animal he wished.
Gaa was feared to the extent that he became more authoritative than the Alaafin who made him the Bashorun.
Gaa’s tyranny started in the days when Labisi was being prepared for the throne of Oyo. He killed the prince’s friends and silenced his supporters, thereby starting his...
...own rule, which he craftily did with the installation of puppet kings from whom he demanded homage. However, it was impossible for Bashorun Gaa to become the Alaafin as he bore no blood of Oranyan to claim the throne.