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distanced themselves from Owo culture.
Eghuavon therefore found a perfect general in Ugbowo to lead the Oluku War
against the Benin. Ugbowo had a personal axe to grind against the Owo people; he had
learnt the secrets of the Owo military as passed down from generation to generation in his
family; moreover, he had the military talent, passion and aggressiveness to conquer other
people, a personal sense of commitment that cannot really be taught. The combination
of all of these qualities gave Ugbowo the uncontested leadership of the Oluku campaign
against Owo people.
Eghuavon wanted to use Owo’s war tactics against the Owo people. The Benin
army would use the arrows of the Owo people to invade the Owo kingdom. It was
impossible for any invading army to carry enough arrows to match the storage of arrows
available to Owo shooters. Any army that came with such a heavy load of arrows would
be too bulky, and not mobile enough to generate the speed needed to take the city of
Owo. Ugbowo therefore asked his military designers to build a shield that stopped
replicas of Owo arrows, without damaging the arrows. Ugbowo divided the army into
three sections: the first was a solid wall of warriors with the newly-designed shield; the
second line consisted of strategically embedded arrow gatherers; and the third section
consisted of highly-trained shooters.
The plan was simple. The Benin army would march light without a single arrow.
The lightness would give them strategic speed of surprise. As the Owo shooters defended
the city, the wall of warriors with the shields would stop the arrows without damaging the
arrows. The arrow gatherers would immediately collect the arrows and give them to the
shooters. The shooters would never run out of ammunition and could keep shooting and
attacking as long as the defenders kept defending.