When Gentle the Yahoo set up his camp in Aku, Okigwe, in 2021, he claimed he was fighting for Biafra. But in truth, what followed was not liberation — it was destruction. Behind his rhetoric was nothing more than kidnapping, violence, and looting. And the scars he left behind are not only counted in lives lost, but in the slow death of entire communities.
The Schools That Fell Silent
In Umulolo, Agbobu, Umuowa-Ibu, Aku, and beyond, schools once filled with the laughter of children now stand in ruins:
Umulolo Central School
Umulolo Girls Secondary School
Umulolo Boys Secondary School
Agbobu/Ndizuogu Community Primary School
Agbobu Central School
Agbobu Community Secondary School
Umuowa-Ibu Technical School
Umuowa-Ibu Primary School
All schools in Aku community
Their zinc roofs were ripped off, windows broken, iron doors and protectors carried away like loot from war. Classrooms were abandoned, and blackboards now gather dust. The saddest part is that the children of these communities have either dropped out of school completely or are scattered, struggling in faraway schools where their parents could manage to send them.
A generation is being robbed of education — and with it, their future.
The Health Centres That Died
Health centres that once gave hope to mothers, children, and the elderly are no more:
Umulolo
Arondizuogu
Agbobu
Aku
Umuowa-Ibu
Ihube
Ezinachi
For three to four years now, children in these communities have not been immunized. Pregnant women have no safe place for antenatal care. The sick have nowhere to turn. What was once the first line of defense against disease has been reduced to empty shells — looted, vandalized, and abandoned.
This is not just about lost structures; it is about broken lives. Children walking the streets instead of classrooms. Mothers watching helplessly as their babies grow without vaccines. Communities stripped of hope.
👉 For anyone who still doubts this, you don’t need arguments — you only need to visit Umulolo, Agbovu, Aku, Umuawa-Ibu, Ihube, or Ezinachi. The truth is there, written in the silence of abandoned schools and the emptiness of destroyed health centres.
What Gentle and his gang left behind is not freedom, but fear. Not Biafra, but backwardness. And Okigwe, once proud, is still counting the losses.
Culled from Igbo History