The sad story of Major General Aguiyi ironsi and Col Adekunle Fajuyi

https://youtu.be/S9pVgfkC22w?si=LN0i6VWtGRhOw4Ty It was the 29th of July, 1966 a humid, restless night in Ibadan. Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi, Nigeria’s first military Head of State, had no idea he was about to walk into history’s cruel trap. He was in the city on a nationwide tour, staying at the Government House as a guest of Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, the Military Governor of Western Nigeria.

But whispers of rebellion were already in the air. Fajuyi, loyal and deeply concerned, warned his guest something was not right. A coup was brewing. The very army Aguiyi-Ironsi once commanded had turned cold and uncertain. Desperate, he tried to reach his Army Chief of Staff, Yakubu Gowon. Silence. No word. No help.

Before sunrise, the compound was surrounded. Heavily armed soldiers, led by a young and determined Theophilus Danjuma, burst in. Ironsi was arrested so was Fajuyi. The scene that followed would haunt Nigeria forever.

Accusations flew: betrayal, tribal bias, complicity in the January coup that had led to the death of the revered northern leader, Ahmadu Bello. But Ironsi, steeped in military decorum, refused to dignify the interrogation especially from junior officers. He believed in discipline. He believed in rank. He believed wrongfully, that respect would shield him.

He was wrong.

Dragged into the forest, stripped of his dignity, and cut off from the nation he once tried to unite, the general who once fought valiantly in the Congo was executed beside his loyal host. His signature swagger stick“Charlie,” adorned with a stuffed crocodilewas by his side, silent. In the Congo, it was said to deflect bullets. In Nigeria, it could not deflect betrayal.

Ironically, “Aguiyi” translates to crocodile in Igbo. But that day, there was no myth. No magic. Only blood and silence beneath the forest canopy.

Months later, on January 20, 1967, the people of Umuahia-Ibeku, Eastern Nigeria, gathered in solemn mourning. Aguiyi-Ironsi was laid to rest with full military honours. His wife, Victoria, clad in deep black, stood behind their children. His parents, stoic. Beside them, Lt. Colonel Ojukwu and dignitaries stood shoulder to shoulder with the grieving crowd.

A nation divided wept for a leader lost.

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