Enter, George Santayana: Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Setting: The old crater-laden, very bumpy and blood-littered Road ’66 with vultures devouring carcasses all over the place.
THE PAST IN THE PRESENT
J.T.U. – A MAN MORE SINNED AGAINST THAN SINNING, BUT WHO KILLED GENERAL JOHNSON THOMAS UMUNNAKWE AGUIYI-IRONSI?
Hypocrite General T.Y Danjuma who was merely shedding goose tears, chiding the military under the duo of Muhammadu Buhari and General Tukur Yusuf Buratai of partisanship, was the ring leader of those who killed his boss he delights to deride as a mere “DESK CLERK HEAD OF STATE” in Ibadan in 1966.
Despite the fact that Danjuma confessed he lost control of the boys in Ibadan, a situation which he said led to the whisking of his boss according to him, to somewhere, but instead of being fired by the military authorities for such dastardly act, Danjuma was allowed to stay on to the point of getting almost to the top most echelon of his profession, becoming Chief of Army Staff in the so-called Nigeria army – and now in command of unearned wealth, the type I refer variously to as wealth without working (www), wealth without sweating (wws), making him a living bad example to all the generations of the military after him, and sure will remain so until the end of the Age!
THE PATHETIC TALE OF AN IGNOMINIOUS TRAITOR – THE DOVE AND THE SERPENT CALLED MAJOR THEOPHILUS YAKUBU DANJUMA WHO ACCOMPANIED MAJOR GENERAL UMUNAKWE AGUIYI-IRONSI TO IBADAN, BUT LIKE A SERPENT TURNED AGAINST HIS BOSS. AS A STAFF ON THE ENTOURAGE OF THE HEAD OF STATE, T.Y. WAS A DOVE, BUT LIKE THE CHAMELEON HE HAS ALWAYS BEEN, HE SOON LIKE A MAD DOG, TURNED AROUND TO BECOME THE *ARRESTOR OF HIS BOSS AND HIS HOST, FRANCIS ADEKUNLE FAJUYI! BELOW IS DANJUMA’S OWN ACCOUNT OF THE EVENT AS HE TOLD THE GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY IN AN INTERVIEW ON FEBRUARY 17, 2008
“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways”, James 1:8 KJV).
Enter, Brutus of the North, who is also known as Judas of Takum (Fidgeting and tries to justify his unparalleled treachery against his Supreme Commander):
“…No, it is not true. What happened was that after we arrested him, I lost control. Remember that I was a complete stranger. I came from Lagos with Ironsi as a staff in the Army Headquarters attached to him. I stayed in the barracks with the Adjutant (the Chief of Staff of the Commanding Officer). I stayed with him in his single officer quarters. And it was there, that at one or two o’clock in the morning – I was in bed – when he came and knocked at my door. He said, “sir, do you know what has happened.” I said, “no”. He said there was some trouble in Abeokuta. He said there was an Igbo officer holding a secret meeting with all the Igbo officers in the Officers’ Mess and our boys went and shot all of them.
“We didn’t want any violence. we wanted to arrest him (Ironsi ) alive and go and lock him up, we wanted to interrogate him, to find out the role he played in the coup (January 1966 ); his stories didn’t add up about how he escaped from Flagstaff House where he was staying at No.1, Glover (Ikoyi), and ended up in Ikeja. How it came about that Njoku, who was supposed to have handed over the command of the largest garrison in Lagos, which was then the Ikeja Garison, did not handover. Njoku was still in command and he (Ironsi) went to join him. We were going to interrogate him about all those, or at least, that was what I thought we were going to do. So, everything I told the soldiers to do or not to do, they obeyed until, eventually, first, (Adekunle) Fajuyi (Military Governor of Western Region) came out of the building after he waited… every time they sent somebody out of the building, nobody went back. So, Fajuyi came down. As he came down the steps, I saluted-him – and said, “Sir, you are under arrest; hands”. He looked at me and called me, “Danjuma?” I said, “Sir, you are under arrest.” “Danjuma?” I said, “Sir, you are under arrest.” He raised his hands, and came down. He said, “What do you want?” I said, “We want to arrest you and we want to arrest the Head of State.” He said, “And you are going out with him?” I said, “yes…” And you were supposed to be on the Supreme Commander’s entourage? I was; I was there. I went to Ibadan with him. What do you mean by, “supposed to?” Because you were now arresting… Yes, I was arresting. 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 guaranteed his safety. I gave him my guarantee: I said, “I guarantee your safety.” He went there and didn’t come down. So, I decided to climb up. As I climbed up the steps, armed soldiers followed me. I had a grenade in my hand. I didn’t have any arm. As I came, lronsi was seated; Fajuyi was by his side. I said, “Sir, you are under arrest.” And I gave him the order to stand up. Reluctantly, Ironsi stood up. He used to carry a staff crocodile. He had it in his hand. They both came down. Fajuyi was still asking me about guaranteeing safety. I guaranteed his safety absolutely. So, we came out of the building down toward the car One of the soldiers said we shouldn’t allow him to carry his crocodile, that there’s juju. I said no; there’s nothing in it. He said he’d disappear if we allowed him to carry it. He started to stop and I told him to shut up. That was the time I lost control. The soldier batoned me and pushed me aside and took charge. To my greatest surprise, the Adjutant, who was, you know, these were his troops – I was a stranger, they were obeying me because everything I did they liked; they liked what I was doing, but the moment I told them not to do something they didn’t like, they rejected – I expected the Adjutant, who was there, to intervene. He probably incited them. He said, “Yes, the soldier is right. This thing here (Ironsi’s crocodile) is his Zasa; it’s juju that will make him disappear.” So, they took the thing from him, pushed me aside and bundled him and Fajuyi in a vehicle and drove away. It was six o’clock in the morning. The front of the Government House was littered with people without shoes; people who had come to get ready to go. They asked every one of them to sit on the floor and they removed their shoes. They all sat, including then-Head of Service (Chief P Odumosu). I came down. They (soldiers) drove away. There was nobody to tell these people to go; so they all sat there. It was I who said, “What are you people still doing here?”. Quietly, they realized they were free to go. They (soldiers) had driven away Fajuyi and Ironsi. What of you? I had to hitch a ride to go to the barracks. They left; there was no vehicle even for me to leave that place; they just drove away, taking them away. So, I had to make my way back to the barracks. If you read General Gowon’s book, it’s there. They named names of the people who actually took Ironsi away. In this interview first published by the Guardian on Sunday of February 17, 2008, Lt-General T.Y. Danjuma, who led the troops that killed the then Head of State, General Aguiyi Ironsi, who was visiting Ibadan, and his host recalled amongst other things, the tragic events of that day as they unfolded. Please read the details at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/07/i-lost-control-after-we-arrested-aguiyi-ironsi-danjuma/. Accessed as reproduced by Vanguard on 01/08/2019.
In that stupidly self-absolving interview in which T.Y. exhibited his pseudo-gallantry, he used such words and phrases as “we”, meaning North, “our boys”, meaning Northern and not Nigerian soldiers; “your area” - meaning North; “our soldiers” - meaning Northern soldiers; “our senior officers” – meaning Northern senior officers, “people from your area” – meaning North.
Enter, St. Peter, the presiding Judge at the Universal Tribunal:
NOW, LOOK BACK T.Y.!
But looking back now after 53 years, especially against the backdrop of the fact that Danjuma was simply being used as a mere “willing tool” like his other fellow Middle Belters such as Yakubu Gowon, David Mark, Jerry Useni who hitherto were won’t to be referring to themselves at the slightest opportunity as “We North”, can he stand before the littered corpses of his fellow Middle Belters, particularly his kinsmen the Takums/Tarabans generally and still refer to himself as a Northerner, more so, now that he has been kicked out of GIDA SHEHU UTHMAN DAN FUDUYE for being so traitorous in the twilight of his life against the interest of his Fulbe colonial masters?
Danjuma was in the entourage of his C-in-C and against all military ethics and traditions did not defend his boss, who at every turn he does refer to as a DESK CLERK HEAD OF STATE, rather he was all over the place - cowardly and unashamedly too, blaming 2nd Lt. Garba Paiko, the Adjutant. Whereas gallant Francis Adekunle Fajuyi (FAF) who was not on the entourage of Ironsi stood by his boss and accepted to be killed by the so-called Northern soldiers in the premeditated plot which Danjuma cannot claim he did not know well ahead of time and died with him. This is a classic case of gallantry and loyalty.
FAJUYI’S UNPARALLELED BRAVERY, GALLANTRY AND LOYALTY
“Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself,” Philippians 2:3
Danjuma and his co-murderers claimed they were avenging the deaths of their fellow Northern officers who were reportedly killed by Ndigbo officers during the Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu-led coup of January 15, 1966 and after, but was Adekunle Fajuyi an Igbo officer?
What if the Yorubas had decided to become as vindictive as the so-called Northern officers, what we have as Nigeria today would have been no more, long, long ago? Therefore, the real hero of the crises that led to the civil war was not anyone else, but Lt Col Francis Adekunle Fajuyi (FAF). And without a doubt in my mind, Adekunle Fajuyi was the real reason Nigeria is still together till date.
Here was a man put in a most difficult situation anyone’s imagination can conceive, but gallantry sacrificed his life, not thinking of himself and family, but the fate of the nation and his boss. Had he handed his boss to the Northern predators on the prowl before his very eyes, and his life was spared, the Nigerian story would have changed dramatically, especially in a society where people are not analytical in their judgement – always rushing to conclude and judge – Ndigbo would have said the Hausa-Fulani-Kanuri, the Middle Belters and the Yorubas had conspired to kill their son.
Imagine that Fajuyi had behaved very cowardly and traitorously like the then Major T.Y Danjuma, apart from the fact that Nigerian would have been no more, the naturally bad blood between the Yorubas and Ndigbo would have been worse than it is today.
Also, what would have been the fate of the Nigerian nation if the children of Oduduwa had decided to become as vindictive and impetuous as the Northern military, Northern politicians – the Fulanis, the Hausas and the Kanuris and their natural “willing tools” – the Middle Belters whose soldiers like Danjuma and Jerry Useni were excited in their jihad punishment meted to Ndigbo – Ironsi and others?
A personal question to Danjuma and other murderers, slaughterers and butchers of the events of July 29th, 1966 – after 53 years which I by now think they are all now mature, sober, reflective and now understand I would say, not the complexity of the Nigerian polity/politics, but the ABC of it, did they, and did they really think that Ironsi instigated the coup or was part of the event that led to the killings of January 15, 1966?
Apart from Danjuma’s legendary cowardice, treachery and double mindedness, he is such a man without a sense of history, hence he did not keep such a historical document as the inquiry and its findings regarding the killing of his so-called DESK CLERK HEAD OF STATE.
Is this then just a gross display of arrogance or a mere carefree attitude or a true exhibition of his personal hatred and disdain for Ironsi and his people – Ndigbo on the part of a Danjuma?
Danjuma not done in shifting blame, was also about town blaming Ironsi’s unnamed ADC, (Andrew Nwankwo) who he claimed did not put up a fight for his boss, but what did “treacherous prodigals” like T.Y. Danjuma and Sani Bello do to save their boss, if not for anything else, but for national interest’s sake and as his (Danjuma’s) Christian Brother – or did not Brother T.Y., sorry (now D.Y. – Defend Yourself) know that the series of tragic dramas that were unfolding in nascent Nigeria before all Nigerians and the world were not about avenging any deaths, but jihad spear-headed by Sunni Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Muslim Ummah – a situation which has blossomed to its worst state of ugliness under jihadi Muhammadu Buhari?
Also, after 53 years, are Danjuma and his co-conspirators aware the same enemies of Nigeria from the far off East are back doing war in Nigeria – the Saudis (Sunni Saudi Arabia and the UAE) and Iranians are right now in the Muhammadu Buhari Sunni-Saudi Arabia-led Government and the El-Zakzaky-Shi’ites-Iranian (imbroglio) war?
What Danjuma and other fellow Nigerians do not yet know is that we already have a situation of Yemen, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Rwanda, Liberia and Sierra Leone in Nigeria with instruments of war arriving Nigeria by the second – and the question to ask is not, will the Saudis-Sunni-Iranian Shi’ites war ever happen in Nigeria, but when?
Danjuma who called one of Ironsi’s ADC a liar really did know he was a liar telling lies all over the place in which according to him (Danjuma), history had taken such lies as the authentic account of all the ugliness that led to Ironsi’s death, yet he said he gave him money when the man visited him after the war!
Why did this Ironsi’s former ADC visit Danjuma after the war, and at whose invitation – Danjuma’s or the man visited him of his own accord?
Why did Danjuma not lock this man up?
Why was this man not court-marshalled for his treachery in not defending his C-in-C (Supreme Commander) just as Danjuma himself and treacherous Sani Bello cared less to so do?
Danjuma claimed he gave the man money, but why and how much?
Was the money intended as a bribe to the man to keep quiet and stop selling his “lies” to the media, historians and the world?
BETWEEN T.Y. DANJUMA AND ANDREW NWANKWO – WHO IS LYING?
Danjuma claimed he saved Andy Nwankwo, one of Ironside’s ADCs letting him to escape unhurt, but Andy himself said he was tied with a telephone wire and led together with his boss – the C-in-C to a forest in Iwo, 10 km away from Ibadan.
It was at Iwo forest that treacherous and cowardly Lt. Sanni Bello in honouring his pact with Andy asked him to escape, for he had said that Bello and himself promised to save each other depending where from the coup was coming and by which group – the Northern elements or Ndigbo officers.
Enter, Andrew Nwankwo, the foolish Coward of the East:
Said Nwankwo: “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. So, we agreed to protect each other depending on where it will be coming from. I later discovered that Walbe who was sleeping with us was part of the coup; he later became ADC to Gowon.” Continued Nwankwo: “They marched us down, Ironsi and myself, to where Fajuyi was. They used telephone cable to tie my hands behind and my legs, with a little space to walk. Same they did to Ironsi, but they removed his shirt, he wore only trousers, they also tied Fajuyi. Ironsi was in a Land Rover, Fajuyi in a mini bus and myself in another bus. They drove us towards Iwo Road, 10 km from Ibadan, there was a small forest were they stopped, marched us to the right hand side of the bush, Fajuyi was leading and as he tried to cross a small stream, he fell down, the soldiers were unruly, it appeared some of them had for the first time taken Indian hemp, so when he fell down some of them started beating him.”
Whereas Nwankwo presented Danjuma in his account of July 29, 1966 as a friend, treacherous and manic Danjuma presented Nwankwo his erstwhile friend as a scum and a wretched of the earth – a sort of almajiri (a hapless street urchin) with a begging bowl, who after the war returned to him to be rehabilitated:
Said T.Y.: “Now, there are a lot of lies. I read some very funny lies told by Ironsi’s ADC whose life I saved. He was an Igbo officer from Abakaliki area, tall, a good-looking chap. After the war he came back, I saw him, we shook hands and I gave him some money. I read his account. You know we captured a lot of literature in Enugu. The Igbos named his account, including what happened in Ibadan, and what happened in the North – as pogrom. I read all the accounts there. It was there that I saw the evidence given by this man in order to … he must have felt guilty, when his boss was arrested and taken away and he went away and he went home empty-handed, without anything even though he was his ADC and nothing happened to him. He had to tell a lie to justify how he came out with his limbs intact. He gave a long story of how he escaped, what happened and so on.
That man told a lot of the lies that gained currency. Ironsi had two ADCs. One of them was Col. Sani Bello and the other was this man. I prevailed on the soldiers not to do anything to anybody. We arranged even for him to escape, and go away. He went home and started telling lies. He told a lot of lies, which I read in the account he gave in Biafra. We had an inquiry. People came to give account and so on and so forth. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep it, but I remember that the stories that gained currency were from that man.”
LOOKING BACK IN ANGER
“Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man, “Genesis 9:6.
Undoubtedly, it is hereby recorded for posterity that in the events leading to the gruesomeness and mindless brutishness of July 29th, 1966 culminating in the killing of Ironsi, and later spiralling into that jihad erroneously referred to as the Nigerian civil war lasting 30 months – July 27th to 15 January 1970, T.Y. Danjuma, owner of wealth without working – without sweating who as part of the Supreme Commander’s entourage was in fact, the evil/wicked/satanic/deadly poisonous ant that hid itself under Johhnny’s collar/armpit/scrotum waiting for a time to sting him when his life was sweetest to him – and T.Y. Danjuma did exactly just that!
And the reverberating echoes of J.T. U’s wonderment across (voice) the vista of time asks his officer, T.Y. wryly, who indeed was part of his entourage and was on the same convoy with him: ET TU, THEOPHILUS?
Also, it will here be recorded for the children of the present generation, posterity and all of humanity that that despicable fiendish Major T.Y. Danjuma was the most treacherous, fiendish and very wicked sonofabitch in the annals of man.
Ironically, all of Ironside’s principal murderers, amongst who was former Major Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma were regulars at Ironside’s house where they were won’t to be demolishing mountains of pounded yam with egusi or Ogbono soup prepared by the First Lady, Victoria Aguiyi-Ironsi herself in the fashion of Ndigbo benevolence and kind gesture – sometimes such regulars would enter the kitchen to prepare food by themselves, which they subsequently demolish with joyous liquids to push them down their oesophagus!
Brother Theo spent years in the military court-marshalling military personnel of corruption, but this our twilight Evangelist who once boasted of making $500, 000, 000xx from just an oil well in a day – our national common, which Danjuma and his co-crooks have shared amongst themselves at the expense of the Nigerian State and the Nigerian people – one of the very maladies which have encouraged crimes of all sorts from the nation’s frustrated youths, who do not have access to the national treasury like T.Y and his cohorts, including their billionaire children and grandchildren, but have taken to crime in order to partake of the so-called national cake.
But does anyone doubt that to these frustrated youths in crimes, criminal activities are just the methods they have devised to redistribute the wealth of the nation?
Thus, all those having wealth without working (www) – without sweating (wws) are nothing, but malevolent cannibals, destiny changers/destroyers, hope shatterers and dream killers!
HOW A SHAMELESS TRAITOR AND A DOUBLE MINDED OFFICER LEFT THE BATTLE SCENE WITHOUT HIS SUPREME COMMANDER ONLY TO BE COWARDLY BLAMING OTHERS
Enter, T.Y. Danjuma: “I had to hitch a ride to go to the barracks. They left; there was no vehicle even for me to leave that place; they just drove away, taking them away. So, I had to make my way back to the barracks. If you read General Gowon’s book, it’s there. They named names of the people who actually took Ironsi away. Now, there are a lot of lies. I read some very funny lies told by Ironsi’s ADC whose life I saved. He was an Igbo officer from Abakaliki area, tall, a good-looking chap. After the war he came back, I saw him, we shook hands and I gave him some money. I read his account. You know we captured a lot of literature in Enugu. The Igbos named his account, including what happened in Ibadan, and what happened in the North – as pogrom. I read all the accounts there. It was there that I saw the evidence given by this man in order to … he must have felt guilty, when his boss was arrested and taken away and he went away and he went home empty-handed, without anything even though he was his ADC and nothing happened to him. He had to tell a lie to justify how he came out with his limbs intact. He gave a long story of how he escaped, what happened and so on. That man told a lot of the lies that gained currency. Ironsi had two ADCs. One of them was Col. Sani Bello and the other was this man. I prevailed on the soldiers not to do anything to anybody. We arranged even for him to escape, and go away. He went home and started telling lies. He told a lot of lies, which I read in the account he gave in Biafra. We had an inquiry. People came to give account and so on and so forth. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep it, but I remember that the stories that gained currency were from that man.”
IRONSI’S ADC’S ACCOUNT CONTERACTED THAT OF T.Y.
“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth”, Isaiah 53:7.
“Here is a true narration of the incident by Andrew Nwankwo, Maj. Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi’s ADC in an interview with Sun News.
The coup
Recalling the events of that night, July 29, 1966, Nwankwo noted that they were in Ibadan, “we had a small detachment of 106 Artillery, Commanded by one Walbe from Plateau” The Head of State had the previous day hosted traditional rulers from all parts of the country in the Ibadan Government House. “He wasn’t feeling quite well, he had a knee problem and had to go to bed early. “Lieutenant Sanni Bello was the army ADC, and we were very close. So, we left that night to go and look out and came back late.
Lt. Adamu who was the ADC to Fajuyi, Sanni Bello, Walbe and myself, we all slept together in one room that night”. “At about 4a.m the telephone rang, I picked it up and that was Adeola, the then commissioner of police, Ibadan he said he wanted to speak with Ironsi, I said I was the ADC, he said he wanted to speak with him because there was a coup and he gave me some names Orok and two others that had been killed in Abeokuta. “
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 look, 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. So, we agreed to protect each other depending on where it will be coming from. I later discovered that Walbe who was sleeping with us was part of the coup; he later became ADC to Gowon. “Around 5:30 we heard gunfire, then Ironsi had called Col. Njoku to tell him about the coup. As Njoku was going out, he was short at, but he escaped with bullet wounds.
It was Njoku, who was the commander of Lagos Garrison that alerted others outside the Government House, Ibadan. “Fajuyi later sent me outside the government House to find out what was happening. I met Danjuma, who was then a major and he was my friend. He pretended he didn’t know what was happening, he was asking me, and I said I didn’t know. While I was trying to go back, one sergeant from Benue almost shot me, but Danjuma stopped him and spoke to him in Hausa. Danjuma later told me that he would like to see Ironsi, so that he could tell them what to do. It was then that Fajuyi came out to find out what was holding me, and there inside the Government House Danjuma ordered for his arrest and mine too.
That was when I saw Walbe. Then Fajuyi asked me to take him to Ironsi so that they will obey him, that there should be only one person in charge. So, I took them to Ironsi, and major Newman, immediately he saw Ironsi, he seized his crocodile swagger stick, and then they started asking him about the January coup, he said he didn’t know about it that he only agreed to be Head of State so that he can restore confidence and normalcy. It was immediately they arrested Ironsi that they turned violent”.
The road to the valley of death
They marched us down, Ironsi and myself, to where Fajuyi was. They used telephone cable to tie my hands behind and my legs, with a little space to walk. Same they did to Ironsi, but they removed his shirt, he wore only trousers, they also tied Fajuyi. Ironsi was in a Land Rover, Fajuyi in a mini bus and myself in another bus. They drove us towards Iwo Road, 10 km from Ibadan, there was a small forest were they stopped, marched us to the right hand side of the bush, Fajuyi was leading and as he tried to cross a small stream, he fell down, the soldiers were unruly, it appeared some of them had for the first time taken Indian hemp, so when he fell down some of them started beating him.
My escape
As Fajuyi fell down and they were beating him, Sanni Bello came to me and tapped me and said, we could do something now. It was providence, may be I was not destined to die. I took a few steps from them and jumped into a nearby ditch, all in a split of a second, Bello came and stood by the ditch and was shouting that I had escaped pointing at another direction. So the soldiers ran around that direction shooting into the bush, and when they felt they must have killed me, they shot Fajuyi and then Ironsi there, by the side of the stream.
So Bello made sure that he was the last to leave the place. The ADC, who was later elected senator in 1983 stated that the former Head of State could have escaped if not that he wanted to make sure that there was no bloodshed. He said if he sacrificed his life and prevented bloodshed in Nigeria, it’s better for him. Even his chaplain urged him to escape but he said No. Also many of his officers who were contacted instead of taking action ran away.
The ADC denied the prevailing story that Ironsi was tied to a Land Rover and dragged along the road. He maintained that he saw Ironsi and Fajuyi shot dead. “They shot him on the chest and it was a burst, so he would have died after the first shot”.
https://oldnaija.com/2015/10/02/the-death-of-major-johnson-aguiyi-ironsi-and-the-lucky-escape-of-his-aide-de-camp-andrew-nwankwo-on-july-29-1966/. Accessed: 07/08/2019.
GENERAL JEREMIAH USENI’S ACCOUNT TOO SHARPLY CONTRADICTS THAT OF T.Y. DANJUMA’S
“After your return from England, Sardauna, Tafawa Balewa and others were killed in 1966. Where were you at the time?
“I was with 4th Battalion Ibadan. The coup came to us as a surprise, like a thief in the night. We just heard in the morning that Sardauna and the rest were killed. In fact, we did not get the news on time. Where was our C.O Lt. Col. Largema? And Brig. Maimalari and Col Kur Mohammed? We learnt they were all killed. And we asked, what type of coup was that? At the time, we were not concerned with where you came from or what your religion was. As long as you were from the north, we cherish each other so much.
So we organised ourselves and agreed that what happened was very dangerous. We also learnt later that a broad government was being formed. A northerner will be transferred to the South, while a Southerner will be transferred to the north. General Hassan katsina was the governor of the north at the time. People like Kashim Ibrahim were also gone. So those of us, Army officers from the north were very angry really.
What was your rank at the time?
I was a Second Lieutenant then, my mates were Ibrahim Babangida, Garba Duba, Mamman Magoro, and the rest. I was together with Yelwa in 4th Battalion, while Duba was in Kaduna. There was another officer from Niger state, I have forgotten his name, and he was even a Senator recently. We realised that Igbos were behind all the killings, and were angered the more because they were not even arrested. Although, they were later arrested and taken to jail, but information came to us that they were just enjoying themselves there. Even their ranks were returned to them and they were wearing their uniforms inside the jail.
We started meeting to find a way out. Our Brigade Commander, Maimalari was killed, Col. Pam, Tafawa Balewa and the rest were all killed. We continued to meet in secret and strategising on how to take revenge.
But while that was going on, words started going round about what the Igbo officers were saying: that they had killed the snake, but had failed to cut off the head. Which meant those of us left might make them suffer later, that there was therefore the need to finish us off. Instead of them to show remorse and apologise, they were planning another sinister attacks. We were together with Col. Remawa at the time, he was serving in Abeokuta, and we heard of a grand plot to kill our emirs. A meeting of all emirs was called in Ibadan, all our emirs gathered in Ibadan, that the head of state, Ironsi, would address them. So we said, are we going to let him come, address them and leave? Or should we just kill him or what? Our fear was that he was in the company of our emirs, and you know bullets do not select whom to hit. What do we do? We don’t want even a single emir to die.
We also considered arresting him at his lodge before he goes to meet with them. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi was the governor of South West at the time, and the head of state, Ironsi, was staying in his house in Ibadan. So we don’t want a situation where they would say he conspired with us. So we decided the best thing to do was to open fire there even if Governor Fajuyi was also caught, so that they would just be buried together, and that was what happened.
Before that time, a party was organised for officers, they brought all sort of drinks for us there. In fact, since joining the Army, I had never seen so many assorted drinks like the one they brought for us that day. The plan was to get us all drunk, so that they would just come and open fire on us and kill us all. That was what they planned for us at the 4th Battalion Ibadan because we were the most feared, because we were the ones who lost a brigade Commander, Lagerma. When Murtala returned from Lagos empty handed, everyone was just crying because Lagerma was a very nice man. After the Coup, Gowon was made the Head of state.
When Ironsi was arrested, T.Y. Danjuma was said to be in Ibadan, and there were reports that you, Duba and Remawa were the ones who arrested him?
It was Garba Dada, the guy from Niger state, the one I was telling you was a Senator recently. He was the Adjutant General at the time, and he was our co-ordinator. We did not stay in one place to meet. We used to drive up to beyond Ijebu-Ode meeting inside the car and then turn back.
Was Domkat Bali also in Ibadan at the time?
No. He was at Abeokuta. In fact they were the ones who started shooting before us. We said, if we just kept quiet, they would have arrested our Boys there.
Why was Gowon selected after the coup?
He was the most senior officer at the time. But there was another reason too. There were people like T.Y. Danjuma and Murtala. But Murtala was a bit less than Gowon in rank, and was too close to us.”
https://www.cknnigeria.com/2013/09/why-we-killed-gen-ironsigen-jerry-useni.html. Accessed; 07/08/2019.
NAME THE PRESIDENCY AFTER FAF
“So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it,” Numbers 35:33.
THE NATION MUST HONOUR FRANCIS ADEKUNLE FAJUYI FOR HIS UNPARALLELED BRAVERY, LOYALTY, EXCEPTIONAL GALLANTRY, SELFLESSNESS AND UNALLOYED PATRIOTISM BY NAMING THE STATE HOUSE, ABUJA AFTER HIM – TO THENCEFORWARD BE KNOWN AND CALLED FRANCIS ADEKUNLE FAJUYI HOUSE. AND I SO MOVE! I THEREFORE CALL ON ALL CONSCIENTIOUS AND PATRIOTIC NIGERIAN TO JOIN WITH ME IN SECONDING THIS MOTION TO ENABLE IT BE SO NAMED VIA AN ACT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
Yours in the service of God, our nation and humanity,
ODEY OKABO OBOYA ADUMA
ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM.
** *The Voice of One crying from the Diaspora…proudly leading the NATIONALISTS UNITY MOVEMENT OF NIGERIA (NUMON).
From my book: THE CALIPHATE DELUSION
***To be continued.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Odey Aduma was formerly Executive Secretary, Foundry Association of Nigeria; Southern Coordinator and the Public Affairs Manager of President Muhammadu Buhari's pastoralists NGO - THE PASTORAL RESOLVE; Chairman, Editorial Board of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc; member, National Committee for the Nigerian Youth Festival, 1993; member, core Committee of the National Technology Summit and was the Summit's chairman for two of its sub-committees - Publicity and Exhibition, 1998; member of the Administrative Panel of Inquiry set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo to investigate the illegal trade in and smuggling of endangered species of wild fauna and flora into and out of Nigeria, 2003.
He was the Chairman, Planning Committee of the General Murtala Muhammed Memorial Lecture for two consecutive years, 2001 and 2002 before it attained a Foundation status in 2002, having first been upgraded to that status in 2001.
General Murtala Muhammed was one of Nigeria's former Heads of State and was killed in the abortive coup led by the then Colonel Buka Suka Dimka on February 13, 1976.
That same capacity saw Mr Aduma delivering huge successes during the Daily Times of Nigeria's 75th Anniversary (in which he raked in N6, 000, 000 into the coffers of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc) and also, playing a similar role in a similar capacity during Dr Isma'il Babatunde Jose's 75th Birth Day.
Dr Jose, doyen of Nigerian journalism was Mr Aduma's personal mentor. That relationship was so close and solid such that whilst Aduma was leaving the shores of Nigeria for Britain in 2003, Dr Jose gave him N10, 000.00.
In 1992, Mr Aduma's contributions to journalism was recognised with the awards of the Nigeria Media Merit Award as the Investigative Reporter of the Year and the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence as the Reporter of the Year, and the British Chevening Scholarship, which saw him studying International Journalism with Specialism in Environment at City, University of London in 2003-2004.
Aduma is the author of the inspirational best-seller, THE DIAMONDS ARE HERE and the founder of Vigilance, the World's Leading Security Magazine and Scorpion News Corp, in addition to founding the Nationalists Unity Movement of Nigeria (NUMON).
Also, Mr Aduma is a professional mentor on the Post Graduate Professional Mentoring Scheme of the City, University of London, England, United Kingdom.
