Ahiara Declaration Ahiara Declaration The Ahiara Declaration: The Principles of the Biafran Revolution, commonly known as the Ahiara Declaration, was a document written by the National Guidance Committee of Biafra and delivered as a speech by Biafran Head of State of Biafra Emeka Ojukwu in the Biafra town of Ahiara on June 1, 1969. After a series of pogroms in which people from the former Eastern Region of Nigeria living in other parts of that country were massacred between 1966 and 1967, the region seceded in 1967 and proclaimed an independent Republic of Biafra. A bitter war ensued as Nigeria fought to
Republic of Benin (1967) and at the same time NCNC partisans began to clash with supporters of other parties, and the non-Igbo rejection of the invasion was solidified. As Okonkwo's administration continued to lose the support of the Mid-Western Region's populace, they became desperate. On 19 September 1967, the Biafrans rebranded the region by proclaiming the Republic of Benin, an independent state separate from Biafra, as a last-ditch effort. It was believed that even if it could not win non-Igbo support, the new state might at least physically divide Biafra from the Nigerian federal forces. Citing the deaths of Mid-Western residents in the northern