His name is Daniel Lawrence BUT in the Biafran army he was known as ‘Pampas’. He is a mullato born to a British woman from Liverpool and a Biafran Ogoja father from Ikom who was a Sailor. He was a LONE CHILD.

His mother died of Malaria during her FIRST visit to Nigeria and his father later died in a shipwreck. As an ORPHAN he lived in Onitsha with his paternal uncle and worked as a young DRIVER in his uncle’s business. As fate would have it, the war broke out and young and very handsome Pampas quickly volunteered to serve in the Biafran Army at barely 17 years of age.

He was soon fighting as a tank driver in a Panhard armoured car captured from the enemy at Onitsha BUT his most memorable contribution to Biafra was aboard another more formidable captured armoured fighting vehicle, a Saladin which he drove for nearly 18 months. Pampas’ Saladin with Sasa Nwoke as the tank gunner was a nightmare for the enemy and served as a force multiplier for the Biafran infantry by providing fire support. With Sasa Nwoke, Pampas’ Saladin knocked out more than 10 assorted enemy tanks made up of Saladins, Panhards, Saracens and Ferrets in different sectors of the war.

His field-craft as a tank driver complimented Sasa’s gunnery skills such that the Biafran Military high command rewarded them with the highest military honour for bravery when their divisional commander Brig. Ogbugo Kanu presented them with the Biafra-Cross. Sadly shortly after that he lost his tank in a freak accident and evacuated it clutching his AK-47 rifle. BUT he survived the war.