By Ejike Anyduba
Major General Aguiyi Ironsi has been dead for five decades and nine years. July 29, 2025, made it 59 years since Nigeria’s first military Head of State Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi Ironsi and his host, the Governor of Western Nigeria, Lt. Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi were whisked away from Government House, Ibadan, and shot over the brooks of Iwo, Osun state.
Ironsi was on the last leg of his nation tour when the army struck. He had visited about three regions, commencing with the North, East, the Midwest and West in that order. It was while in the West, the last region on the tour list, that he was abducted by soldiers alongside his host, the governor of Western Region, Lt. Col Fajuyi.
Many reasons have been adduced as to why Western Nigeria was the region of choice for the revenge coup. The soldiers, many of whom Northerners, seemed to have an aversion, spilling Ironsi’s blood in the North; could not take him in the Midwest and were unable to access him in the East. With the North out of the way, the Midwest fairly difficult to maneuver and the East completely inaccessible because of Lt. Col. Ojukwu, the choice of Western region became a compelling one.
Major Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma who claimed in an interview he granted the Guardian newspaper of Sunday February 17, 2008, to have been roused from sleep in the barracks where he passed the night, headed straight to Government House, Ibadan, to effect the arrest of the Supreme Commander.
Dressed in American combat uniform of an officer his size, worn over a pajamas, he moved to the State House, Ibadan, to arrest the General and his host. Armed with a grenade (another account said a Sten gun), Danjuma ordered the soldiers guarding the C-in-C to ground arms and they did.
Ironsi who had already been briefed about the mutiny in Abeokuta barracks and the attendant disquiet in the army, had dispatched Lt. Col. Hilary Mbilitem Njoku, Commander of the 2nd Brigade, Lagos, to return to base and counter the mutiny. He was asked to change to plain clothes and move in a civilian car. But no sooner had he left the Government House, Ibadan, than the soldiers noticed him. He was shot and wounded. “But soon after leaving Government House for his chalet, Lt. Col Njoku noticed troops dismounting from two Land Rovers and the silhouette of the Aide-de-Camp to the Military Governor of the West, who directed the soldiers’ attention to the Lt. Col. Immediately two or three soldiers in the gang fired at him from Sten guns and he returned the fire with his pistol. Shot in the thigh and elsewhere, Lt. Col. Njoku escaped in a helpless condition and made for the University College Hospital, Ibadan, where he was admitted for treatment. There again he was attacked by the assassins, but he escaped and eventually found his way to the East.” (Reflections on the Nigerian Civil War by Ralph Uwechue).
At this point Danjuma who had effectively overpowered the security men at the State House, ensured nobody left the Government House. Anybody who came out was arrested and detained, including Ironsi’s Air Force ADC, Captain Andrew Nwankwo. The latter was detained in a waiting bus. Fajuyi was next as he walked down possibly to find out what was delaying Nwankwo. He however pleaded with Danjuma not to go upstairs with armed men to arrest Ironsi, electing instead to go and call him. He was obliged. “He (Fajuyi) pleaded with me not to go up with armed men that he was going to go up and call him (Ironsi) provided I guarantee his safety. I gave him my guarantee. He went there, and didn’t come down.” I had to climb up with armed soldiers and found both men seated. I ordered their arrest, Danjuma said.
Downstairs, Ironsi was marched into a Land Rover while Fajuyi was hurled into a mini bus. But before the journey to the execution ground commenced Danjuma claimed he lost control. He told of how he was “batoned” and pushed aside by younger officers who at that point were no longer ready to take orders from him. He said he immediately hitch-hiked his way back to the barracks. However, another version of the story reported the incident differently. Danjuma was said to have led the convoy up to Makola junction of the Letmauk barracks before disengaging and circling back to the barracks. Again Uwechue wrote: “The whole convoy now moved, with Danjuma leading. On arrival at the Makola junction of the Letmauk barracks and Oyo roads, Major Danjuma signaled to the rest of the convoy to proceed while he himself made for the barracks.”
The fate of the two men had been sealed. They were immediately subjected to repeated torture of beating and crossing brooks. After crossing about six brooks and completely drained of strength to continue trudging, they were finished off by a couple of volleys. Present at the scene of death was Captain Sani Bello, Ironsi’s army ADC. Although Captain Nwankwo said there was no evidence to connect him with the coup and went further to say he escaped through his support. In an interview he granted Oblong Media (Special Branch Report) Nwankwo said that once it was established from Police Commissioner Adeola through a phone call that there was a coup d’état, he knew that Northern soldiers were responsible. “Immediately, I made a mental picture of it and I knew that it was the Northerners that were responsible. So I handed the phone to Ironsi and they talked. I then alerted Adamu and Sanni Bello and said there is a coup, and the trend is this way. Bello assured me that if it is his own people he will protect me because there was tension in the land such that we knew a coup was imminent.” Once it was obvious they wouldn’t be spared further, Nwankwo managed to untie his cuffs, took few steps from the assailants and jumped into a ditch in a nearby bush. He claimed Bello saved him by pointing to a different direction of escape to his assailants.
With the death of the two men begun the night of the long knives like the June/July 1934 horror of the Nazi Germany. Igbo officers were hunted down everywhere and killed. Ironsi had surrounded himself with men fixated on revenge. Men whose presence around him raised no suspicion. Officers like T.Y Danjuma who as a staff officer in the army headquarters was attached to him; Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon who was his Chief of Staff; Lt. William Walbe (Tanker) who was of the 106 recoil-less rifle group – a permanent support weapons group in Ironsi’s bodyguard. Lt. Pam Nwadkom whose elder brother Lt. Col. James Pam was murdered in January. Lt. Pam was the deputy officer at Abeokuta Garrison on the night of the coup. Others were Lt Col. Murtala Mohammed, Major Martin Adamu, Captain Joe Nanven Garba, Lieutenants Garba Paiko, Titus Numan, and Abdullahi Shelleng etc. It was certain nothing could have prevented the death of the two men.
Ejike Anyaduba writes from Abatete in Anambra State.
