Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu
Major Ifeajuna..An Astute Sports Man..His Image dons the back of exercise book{High Jumper}
Major Adewale Ademoyega
Maj. Timothy Onwuatuegwu {At Old Age}
Middle...Maj.Gen..Aguiyi Ironsi...Military Head Of State
1st Left...Lt.Col Adekunle Fajuyi...Military Governor Western Nigeria
2nd Right Lt.Col Odumegwu Ojukwu...Military Governor Eastern Nigeria
2nd Left...Major..Hassan Katsia...Military Governor Northern Nigeria
2nd Right .Lt.Col. David Ejoor...Military Governor Mid West Nigeria
The 1966 Nigerian coup d'état began on January 15, 1966, when mutinous Nigerian soldiers led by Kaduna Nzeogwu and Emmanuel Ifeajuna killed 22 people[1]including the Prime Minister of Nigeria, many senior politicians, many senior Army officers (including their wives), and sentinels on protective duty.[2][3] The coup plotters attacked the cities of Kaduna, Ibadan, and Lagos while also blockading the Niger and Benue River within a two-day span of time before the coup plotters were subdued. The General Officer Commanding, of the Nigerian Army, Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi then used the coup as a pretext to annex power, ending Nigeria's nascent democracy. It was one of the events that led to the Nigerian Civil War.
The Background Of The Coup:-
In August 1965 a group of Army majors
The list below shows the officers involved on both sides of the coup as well as their ethnic backgrounds.
Conspirators
- Maj. Kaduna Nzeogwu (Igbo)
- Maj. Adewale Ademoyega (Yoruba), author of "Why we struck"
- Maj. Emmanuel Ifeajuna (Igbo)
- Maj. Timothy Onwuatuegwu (Igbo)
- Maj. Chris Anuforo (Igbo)
- Maj. Humphrey Chukwuka (Igbo)
- Maj. Don Okafor (Igbo)
- Capt. Ogbo Oji (Igbo)
Participants
- Capt. Emmanuel Nwobosi (Igbo)
- Capt. G. Adeleke (Yoruba)
- Lt. Fola Oyewole (Yoruba), author of "The reluctant rebel"
- Lt. R. Egbiko (Esan)
- Lt. PM Okocha (Igbo)
- Lt. Tijani Katsina(Hausa/Fulani)
- Lt. O. Olafemiyan (Yoruba)
- Capt. Gibson Jalo (Bali)
- Capt. Swanton (Middle Belt)
- Lt. Dag Warribor (Ijaw)
- 2nd Lt. Saleh Dambo (Hausa)
- 2nd Lt. John Atom Kpera (Tiv)
- Capt. Ben Gbulie (Igbo)
Began plotting a coup d'état against incumbent Prime Minister Abubakar Balewa. The coup was planned because according to the majors, the men at the helm of affairs were running Nigeria aground with their corrupt ways. Ministers under them were living flamboyant lifestyles and looting public funds at the expense of ordinary citizens.
The president of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe left the country in late 1965, first for Europe, then on a cruise to the Caribbean. Under the law, the Senate president, Nwafor Orizu, became acting president during his absence and had all the powers of the president.
Late in the morning of January 15, 1966, at a meeting with some local journalists in Kaduna seeking to find out what was going on, it was brought to Major Nzeogwu's attention that the only information about the events then was what was being broadcast by the BBC. Nzeogwu was surprised because he had expected a radio broadcast of the rebels from Lagos. He is said to have "gone wild" when he learnt that Emmanuel Ifeajuna in Lagos had not made any plans whatsoever to neutralize Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi who was the Commander of the Army. Therefore, Nzeogwu hurriedly drafted the following speech which was broadcast on Radio Kaduna sometime around 12 a.m:
Acting President Nwafor Orizu made a nationwide broadcast, after he had brief President Nnamdi Azikiwe on the phone the decision of the cabinet, announcing the cabinet's "voluntary" decision to transfer power to the armed forces. Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi then made his own broadcast, accepting the "invitation". On January 17, Major General Ironsi established the Supreme Military Council in Lagos and effectively suspended the constitution.
CASUALTIES:-
Government officials
- Prime Minister Abubakar Balewa † (Baggara)
- Premier Ahmadu Bello † (Fulani)
- Premier Samuel Akintola † (Yoruba)
- Finance Minister Festus Okotie-Eboh † (Itsekiri)
- Gen. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi (Igbo)
- Brig. Samuel Ademulegun † (Yoruba)
- Brig. Zakariya Maimalari † (Kanuri)
- Col. Kur Mohammed † (Kanuri)
- Col. Ralph Shodeinde † (Yoruba)
- Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon (Ngas)
- Lt. Col. Abogo Largema † (Kanuri)
- Lt. Col. James Pam † (Berom)
- Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe † (Igbo)
- Lt. Col. Conrad Nwawo (Igbo)
- Maj. Hassan Katsina (Fulani)
CIVILIANS:-
- Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa
- Premier Ahmadu Bello
- Premier Samuel Ladoke Akintola
- Finance Minister Festus Okotie-Eboh
- Ahmed Ben Musa (Senior Assistant Secretary for Security)
- Hafsatu Bello
- Mrs Latifat Ademulegun
- Zarumi Sardauna
- Ahmed Pategi (Government driver)
POLICE:-
- Sergeant Daramola Oyegoke (assisted Nzeogwu in the attack on the Sardauna's lodge and according to the Police report was murdered by Nzeogwu)[2][3]
- PC Yohana Garkawa
- Lance Corporal Musa Nimzo
- PC Akpan Anduka
- PC Hagai Lai
- philip lewande
The Implications Of The 1966 Coup:-
ON the coup: On January 15, 1966, they struck and turned the weapons which we issued to them to defend the country, on the government and the leaders that issued the weapons to them. In the process, they killed the Prime minister of the country; they killed the premier of the West; they killed the premier of the North.
They were about to kill the premier of the East but what saved Dr Michael Okpara was that Archbishop Macarious, the president of Cyprus, was his guest that night and probably they wouldn’t want war between Cyprus and Nigeria.
On the other hand they could not kill Chief Dennis Osadebey because there was no Army in Benin at the time of the coup and so Osadebey managed to escape.
They also killed Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, the Federal Minister of Finance.
They also killed some members of their own group. For example, Brigadier Maimalari was innocently killed.
My close friend, Colonel Arthur Unegbe was also killed. He was in charge of the Armoury and because he was reluctant to release the Armoury to them, they shot and killed him in his house.
Since then, Nigeria has never been the same and Nigeria has never attained anything near the dreams of the founding fathers and nationalists and fought for independence of the nation.
Ademoyega{One Of The Major Conspirators} described the 1966 coup as a nationalist one motivated by idealism and a desire to tackle corruption and end the anarchy and mindless violence that was raging then. He dwelt more on the rationale for the coup in his memoir
Ademoyega{One Of The Major Conspirators} described the 1966 coup as a nationalist one motivated by idealism and a desire to tackle corruption and end the anarchy and mindless violence that was raging then. He dwelt more on the rationale for the coup in his memoir
�Why We Struck.�
There were however other accounts about the conception and execution of the coup which tended to deviate from the way and manner Ademoyega saw their 1966 coup. Some Nigerians were of the view that had the First Republic not been truncated with that coup, perhaps Nigeria�s democracy would have purged itself of its alleged bad features. Some others said the coup was racial; that it was an Igbo affair and that the only Yoruba officer involved, Ademoyega, was roped in.
President Olusegun Obasanjo is one person who would insist there was no rationale for the 1966 coup.
The late Ademoyega himself said this much in his memoir. He recalled that he was greeted with the rudest shock of his life when he visited the then General Obasanjo at Dodan Barracks, Lagos in February 1976, after he took over as head of state following the death of General Murtala Muhammed in another military coup on February 13, 1976. According to Ademoyega, Obasanjo assembled all the staff in his office and parading him before them he lampooned him and lectured him on how their �unpatriotic act� plunged Nigeria into civil war.
He passed on recently at the age of 74 after a protracted illness..He was from Ode Remo...Survived by Wife and Four Children
Read more: http://nm.onlinenigeria.com/templates/?a=9670#ixzz4sYkZrGJe
Read more: http://nm.onlinenigeria.com/templates/?a=9670#ixzz4sYkZrGJe
Some Of The Cause Of The Civil War:-
Well, the Army took over and they continued to blunder. They continued to do what they were trained to do; that is to destroy; to kill and to loot. Then the quarrel between two Lieutenant Colonels – Ojukwu and Yakubu Gowon – eventually led the country to a civil war. Ojukwu said he was senior to Gowon and that Gowon cannot be the head of state when he (Ojukwu) was a governor.
Courtesy Eye Witness:- Mbazulike Amechi:-
Chief Mbazulike Amechi, popularly known as ‘The boy is good’ was a first republic parliamentarian and first post Independence Minister of Aviation. He was a strong member of the defunct Zikist Movement and since the first bloody military coup on January 1966, which sacked the politicians, Amechi has been living in his community, Ukpor in Nnewi South local government area. He spoke on his experience:
Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/01/january-15-1966-coup-why-they-called-it-an-igbo-coup-mbazulike-amechi/
Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/01/january-15-1966-coup-why-they-called-it-an-igbo-coup-mbazulike-amechi/
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