TODAY IN HISTORY

|The Assassination of General Aguiyi-Ironsi and Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi|

The Head of the Military, General Aguiyi-Ironsi (Middle), and from left: Major Hassan Usman Katsina, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, Lt. Col. O Ojukwu, and Lt. Col. D.Ejoor, Governors of the Northern, Western, Eastern, and Mid-Western Nigerian regions respectively.

On this day, in 1966, Nigeria's Second Head of State and First Military leader, General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi (January 1966-July 1966), was arrested and assassinated by a group of mutinous Northern army soldiers. This revolt came to be known as the July 1966 Counter-Coup.

Leading to the assassination, General Aguiyi-Ironsi was spending the night at the Government House in Ibadan, as part of his nationwide tour aimed at resolving the growing tribal violence threatening the peace and unity of the country, when his host, Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, alerted him to a possible mutiny within the army. The General desperately tried to contact his Army Chief of Staff, Yakubu Gowon, but he was unreachable. By the early hours of the morning, the Government House, Ibadan, was surrounded by a group of soldiers led by Theophilus Danjuma. General Aguiyi-Ironsi was soon arrested and questioned about his alleged complicity in the coup of January 1966, which saw the demise of the Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, and other prominent Northern leaders. It was the last time the General was seen alive. His body and that of Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, the Military Governor of Western Nigeria, was later discovered in a nearby forest.

The circumstances leading to Aguiyi-Ironsi’s death still remain a subject of much controversy in Nigeria.