60 Years After: Remembering the Killing of Aguiyi-Ironsi and Fajuyi

On 29 July 1966, Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi, Nigeria’s first military Head of State, was killed during the counter-coup in Ibadan. Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, the Western Region’s military governor, was also killed after Government House was surrounded by mutinous soldiers. Lieutenant Colonel Hilary Njoku and Captain Andrew Nwankwo escaped the attack, despite sustaining or facing gunfire. Aguiyi-Ironsi had joined the Nigerian Army in 1946 and rose through the ranks to become its first indigenous General Officer Commanding in 1965. He led Nigerian troops during the Congo crisis before assuming power after the January 1966 coup. His nickname, “Aguiyi,” was linked to the crocodile-shaped swagger stick he was known to carry. The killings deepened Nigeria’s political and ethnic crisis and were followed by events that led to the civil war. The surviving and opposing officers, including Njoku, Nwankwo, Theophilus Danjuma and Murtala Mohammed, later played significant roles in Nigeria’s military and political history.

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