On 26 May 1967, Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu called a meeting with the Advisory Committee of Chiefs and Elders across the Eastern Region to delegate on the post-coup violence on the Igbo people and sought their decision on the next move.
The following day, on 27 May 1967, the consultative forum mandated Ojukwu to declare secession and on May 30, 1967, he declared independence as the Republic of Biafra – named after the Bight of Biafra, a bay on the country’s Atlantic coast. The declaration led to the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War of 1967-1970 that claimed the lives of over 3.5 million Igbo people.
