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Remembering the horror of 1966 coup (1)

By Femi Fani-Kayode
03 February 2016   |   3:37 am
ON the night of January 15th 1966 a coup d’etat took place in Nigeria, which resulted in the murder of a number of leading political figures and senior army officers in Lagos, Kaduna and Ibadan. This was the first coup in the history of our country and 98 per cent of the officers that planned and…
PHOTO: austinaija.com

PHOTO: austinaija.com

ON the night of January 15th 1966 a coup d’etat took place in Nigeria, which resulted in the murder of a number of leading political figures and senior army officers in Lagos, Kaduna and Ibadan. This was the first coup in the history of our country and 98 per cent of the officers that planned and led it were Igbo. From the political class those that were killed included the following:  Sir. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Prime Minister, who was abducted from his home, murdered and whose body was dumped somewhere along the Lagos-Abeokuta road.

Sir. Ahmadu Bello, the Premier of the old Northern Region, who was killed in the sanctity of his own home together with his wife and his security assistant. Chief S.L. Akintola, the Premier of the old Western Region, who was gunned down in the presence of his family and Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, the Minister of Finance, who was abducted from his home, brutalised, murdered and dumped in a bush.

From the ranks of the military those that were murdered included Brigadier Zakari Maimalari, who had held a cocktail party in his home a few hours earlier that evening which was attended by most of the young officers that participated in the coup. Brigadier Samuel Ademulegun who was shot to death in his matrimonial bed along with his eight-month pregnant wife.  Others included Col. Ralph Shodeinde, Col. Kur Muhammed, Lt. Col. James Pam, Lt. Col. Abogi Largema, Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe, PC Yohanna Garkawa, PC Haga Lai, Lance Corporal Musa Nimzo, Sgt. Daramola Oyegoke, PC Akpan Anduka and Ahmed Ben Musa.

Sadly the mutineers came to our home in Ibadan that night as well and they brutalised and abducted my father, Chief Remilekun Fani-Kayode, the deputy premier of the old Western Region. What I witnessed that night was traumatic and devastating for my family and me and, of course, what the nation witnessed that night was horrific. It was a night of carnage, barbarity and terror. The events of that night set in motion a series of events, which changed our history. The consequences of the events of that night are still with us till this day.

In the middle of the night, my mother came into the room which I shared with my older brother, Rotimi and my younger sister Toyin. I was six years old at the time. The lights had been cut so initially we were in darkness and all we could see were lights from three large vehicles. The official residence had a very long drive so it took the vehicles a while to reach us.

We heard the engines of three lorries drive up the driveway. The occupants of the lorries, who were uniformed men and who carried torches, positioned themselves and prepared to storm our home whilst calling my father’s name and ordering him to come out. My father went out to meet them after he had gathered us together, prayed for us and explained to us that since it was him they wanted he must go out there. He explained that he would rather go out to meet them than let them come into the house to shoot or harm us.

The minute he stepped out they brutalised him. They tied him up, threw him in the back of the lorry and then stormed the house.

When they got into the house, they ransacked every nook and cranny, shooting into the ceiling and wardrobes. They were very brutal and frightful and we were terrified. My mother, Chief Mrs. Adia Adunni Fani-Kayode, was screaming and crying from the balcony because all she could do was focus on her husband who was downstairs.
“Don’t kill him, don’t kill him!!” she kept screaming at them. I didn’t know where my brother or sister was at this point because the house was in total chaos. I was standing there in the middle of the house, surrounded by uniformed men who were ransacking the whole place and terrorising my family.
Then out of the blue, one of the soldiers came up to me, put his hand on my head and said: “don’t worry, we won’t kill your father, stop crying.” He said this thrice. After he said it the third time, I stopped crying. This was because he gave me hope and he spoke with compassion. With newfound confidence I went rushing to my mother who was still screaming on the balcony and told her to stop crying because the soldier had promised that they would not kill my father.

From there they went to the home of Chief S.L. Akintola, the Premier of the Western Region, a great statesman and nationalist and a very dear uncle of mine. My mother had phoned Akintola to inform him of what had happened in our home. She was screaming down the phone asking where her husband had been taken and by this time she was quite hysterical. Chief Akintola tried to calm her down assuring her that all would be well.

When they got to Akintola’s house, he already knew that they were coming and he was well prepared for them. Instead of coming out to meet them, he had stationed some of his policemen and they started shooting. A gun battle ensued and consequently the mutineers were delayed by at least one hour.

According to the Special Branch reports and the official statements of the mutineers that survived that night and that were involved in the Ibadan operation, their plan had been to pick up my father and Chief Akintola from their homes, take them to Lagos, gather them all together at Dodan Barracks with the other political leaders that had been abducted and then execute them all together.

After some time Chief Akintola’s ammunition ran out and the shooting stopped. His policemen stood down and they surrendered. He came out waving a white handkerchief and the minute he stepped out they just shot him to pieces.
After they killed him they moved on to Lagos with my father. They took him to the Officer’s Mess at Dodan Barracks. He was rescued, after a dramatic gun battle, by loyalist troops led by Capt. S.G. Tokida who were under the command of Lt. Col. Jack Yakubu Gowon.

The next morning a handful of policemen came and took us to the house of my mother’s first cousin, Justice Atanda Fatai Williams, who was a judge of the Western Region at the time. He later became the Chief Justice of Nigeria. From there we were taken to the home of Justice Adenekan Ademola, another High Court judge of the Western Region at the time, who was a very close friend of my father and who later became a Judge of the Court of Appeal.

Two days later my father finally called us on the telephone and he told us that he was fine. When we heard his voice, I kept telling my mother “I told you, I told you.” Justice Ademola and his dear wife, Auntie Frances, were weeping, my mother was weeping, my brother and sister were weeping and I was just rejoicing because I knew that he would not be killed and I had told them.

I never got to know who that soldier was (that promised me that my father would not be killed) but I believe that God spoke through him that night. The savagery that night had never been witnessed in our shores. In my view, there is nothing heroic about rebellion and the murder and carnage of innocent and defenceless men and women. The events of that night led to a counter-coup six months later. This counter-coup, which is commonly referred to as the “revenge coup”, was a devastating and disproportionate response. Yet it did not stop there. Sadly after that came the horrendous pogroms and slaughter of no less than 30, 000 Igbo civilians in the north. This led to the civil war in which millions of people died, including innocent children. This was also horrendous and deplorable.
To be continued tomorrow.

• Fani-kayode is a former minister of aviation.

3 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    People involved in that so called “Igbo coup” are:

    1. Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu (Delta Igbo)
    2. Major Adewale Ademoyega (Yoruba) author of “Why we struck”
    3. Capt. G. Adeleke (Yoruba)
    4. Maj. Ifeajuna (Igbo)
    5. Lt. Fola Oyewole (Yoruba) author of “The reluctant rebel”
    6. Lt. R. Egbiko (Esan)
    7. Lt. Tijani Katsina (Hausa/Fulani)
    8. Lt. O. Olafemiyan (Yoruba)
    9. Capt. Gibson Jalo (Bali)
    10. Capt. Swanton (Middle Belt)
    11. Lt. Hope Harris Eghagha (Urhobo)
    12. Lt. Dag Warribor (Ijaw)
    13. 2nd Lt. Saleh Dambo (Hausa)
    14. 2nd Lt. John Atom Kpera.

    Please let us teach history right. why would you at this our state, want to release this mis-information? Allah(SWH) bless Nigeria

  • Author’s gravatar