A healed bullet scar on the hip of Col. John Okoli, sustained during his service as an infantry officer of the Biafran army in the Nigerian Civil War. The scar appears to be well-healed but prominent, with visible contraction of the surrounding skin, likely resulting from the wound's severity and subsequent healing process.

Also see: Col. Okoli's Military Uniform

Col. John Okoli, born in Aguleri and a native of Ekwulobia, Anambra State, attended the Nigerian Military School, Zaria, for his secondary education. He later advanced his military training at the Military Academy in Harar, Ethiopia, completing a demanding three-year cadet course in 1965. Following his training, he was stationed in Abeokuta in December of the same year. However, amid the indiscriminate killing of Igbo officers in the Nigerian military, and escalating tensions following Nigeria’s second military coup in July 1966, Col. Okoli fled Abeokuta and eventually settled in Enugu, where he remained until the start of the Civil War.

During the war, Col. Okoli served as an infantry officer in the Biafran army and later transitioned to the artillery unit. In his service as an infantry officer, he sustained a bullet wound on his hip.

In his book My Personal Encounter with the July 1966 Coup at Abeokuta, Col. Okoli offers a personal account of his experience in military service.