Ogbugo Kalu (died February 2004) was a former army officer who served in both the Nigerian Army and Biafran Army. Kalu was also commander of the Nigerian Military Training College (NMTC) in Kaduna following the 1966 Nigerian coup d'état.
Nigerian Army career
Prior to Kalu's celebrated career as an officer in the Biafran Army, he had been serving in the Nigerian Army since 1958. After being given formal military training in both Ghana and the United Kingdom, Kalu was short service commissioned a Second Lieutenant in November 1959. He was later promoted to the rank of Major sometime during the first half of the 1960s.
On the night of January 15, 1966, a coup d'état was set in motion by 9 Igbo and 1 Yoruba army officers, but was short-lived and quelled within 48 hours by the Igbo Gen. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi who then assumed total leadership over Nigeria. Gen. Ironsi appointed Maj. Kalu commandant of the Nigerian Military Training College in Kaduna due to the fact that its incumbent commander, Col. Ralph Shodeinde, was assassinated by a detachment of mutinous soldiers led by Maj. Timothy Onwuatuegwu on the night of the coup. He was appointed Lieutenant Colonel in May 1966.
On July 29, 1966, a second coup d'état took place after a majority of the Nigerian Army led by 32 army officers rose up against Ironsi's dictatorship and assassinated him along with several other Igbo officers and politicians. Kalu hosted an early afternoon meeting at his house in Kaduna where he informed several south-eastern officers about the coup and that their lives were in danger, these officers included Lt. Col. Alexander Madiebo, Maj. Christopher Emelifonwu, Maj. Ayodele Ogunro, and Maj. Samuel Ogbemudia. After hearing that both Maj. Emelifonwu and Maj. Ogunro were murdered by Hausa-Fulani soldiers in Kaduna, Lt. Col. Kalu made his way to a railroad depot where he managed to stow away inside the water-tank of a train destined for south-eastern Nigeria.
Biafra
In February 1967 the Eastern Region government under Odumegwu Ojukwu was becoming concerned about the constant confrontations Igbo civilians were having with rival ethnic groups, mainly the Hausa-Fulani population, and decided to form two infantry battalions that wouldn't be under the control of the Nigerian government, these would later become the Biafran 7th and 8th Battalions. Lt. Col. Kalu was asked to command the 8th Battalion, based in Port Harcourt, while Lt. Col. Alexander Madiebo was asked to command the 7th Battalion, based in Nsukka. When Nigeria declared war on Biafra on July 6, 1967, the 8th Battalion became responsible for defending Ahoada, Calabar, Oron, and Bonny. The Biafran 52nd Brigade, consisting of Kalu's 8th Battalion and the 9th Battalion under Maj. Ogbo Oji, was created shortly after the outbreak of the war and placed under the command of Col. Anthony Eze. Kalu was given command of the 52nd Brigade by President Ojukwu after the Nigerian 3rd Marine Division under Gen. Benjamin Adekunle seized Bonny with little resistance in July 1967. Kalu led a campaign against the Nigerian 15th Brigade under Lt. Col. Ipoola Alani Akinrinade, stationed in Bonny, in December 1967-January 1968. The 52nd Brigade nearly re-captured Bonny from the Nigerians, but, reinforcements arrived from Lagos in time to save the 15th Brigade.
Again, in late March and early April, after a series of reversals, Kalu blocked the first major attempt by Adekunle to take Port Harcourt through Onne. Lt. Col. Akinrinade's Nigerian 15th Brigade was practically wiped out after the Biafran 52nd Brigade launched an offensive against the Nigerian positions surrounding Port Harcourt. The only survivors were "Ijaw swimmers" who knew how to disappear into the creeks. Kalu ordered his men to halt the offensive once the Nigerians had been pushed out of Port Harcourt and the surrounding countryside, but, had the 52nd Brigade continued the pursue the retreating Nigerians they could have most likely re-captured Bonny. Kalu quickly fell out of favor with the local Biafran civilian leaders in Port Harcourt due to his inability to clear the area of the Nigerian threat and, consequently, was relieved of his command of the 52nd Brigade by President Ojukwu and replaced by Maj. Joseph Achuzie on May 19, 1968. After 5 days of fierce urban warfare, Port Harcourt fell to the Nigerian 3rd Division under Gen. Adekunle while the Biafran 52nd Brigade was forced to retreat to Igrita.