Damola Awoyokun, an engineer and
historian has perused hitherto hidden dispatches from British diplomats and
intelligence officers on Nigeria’s first coup—a very bloody one—executed by Majors
CK Nzeogwu and EA Ifeajuna on 15 January 1966. The coup in which political
leaders and military officers of northern Nigeria extraction were majorly
killed triggered a counter-coup and eventually declaration of Biafra and a
civil war.
Kaduna
It was a soundless morning, dark, pulsating, starless. The harmattan spiked the
2am air with prickly cold and fog. With his finger to the trigger, the
28-year-old Major Patrick Chukwuma Nzeogwu addressed the soldiers from Charlie
Company of the 3rd Infantry Battalion and some Nigerian Military Training
College (NMTC) personnel. They were armed with fury, submachine guns, knives,
grenades, torchlights, rocket launchers. Nzeogwu reeled about how the
politicians had dragged the country to the cliff of fall and kicked it down
into a worst-case scenario. He reeled about nepotism, large scale looting of
public wealth, persistent poverty of the people, the yearnings of millions
hollowed out by afflictions, the epidemic of insecurities, the Tiv riots, the
Western Region’s daily bloodletting, the country’s tireless race to the bottom
instead of high up to the plane of regard.
He pointed to Sardauna’s residence right behind him as the ultimate symbol of
the filth Nigeria had become. His fellow soldiers were stunned. They did not
know they had been turned into reluctant rebels. They thought this was supposed
to be another night’s training exercise the brigade high command had approved
for them which they started two weeks previously. Nzeogwu then asked the
soldiers to concentrate on how to be necessary and to feel proud that they were
the ones called upon to rescue the nation, to show the way, to be the new
founding fathers of a better Nigeria. In other words, like Homer’s Illiad, he was asking them not to see
the epic bloodbath that was about to start as an outbreak of evil, but their
generous contribution to the redemption and welfare of the nation.
They Charged Forward
Four hours earlier around 10 o’clock, the last lights in the Sardauna’s
household had gone out. They were expected to wake by 4am to eat suhur, the predawn meal to begin the
fast. Ramadan started on 23rd December 1965. A week earlier, the Prime Minister
Mallam Tafawa Balewa Abubakar met the Queen and the British Prime Minister
Harold Wilson. He had invited all the Commonwealth Prime Ministers for a
special meeting in Lagos from 11- 12 January to resolve Rhodesian crises. It
was the first of its kind outside London. On 19 December, he went to the small
village of Arondizuogu in Orlu for the commissioning of his trade minister, Dr
Ozumba Mbadiwe’s Palace of the People. Built by Italian contractors, it was a
three-storey affair resplendent with blue terrazzo walls, swimming pool and a
fountain, grand conference halls and event rooms, red carpet and gilt chairs.
All these in a village where most houses were still born of mud and thatched
roofs.
Since the first tarred roads were constructed in 1890s in Lagos, and the first
dual carriage way in Nigeria – Queen Elizabeth Road – appeared in 1956 in
Ibadan, no road in Arondizuogu or in Orlu had ever been graced with bitumen
before. Yet Mbadiwe situated the grand palace there as a source of pride for
his people. At the commissioning ceremony, the Eastern Premier, Dr Okpara never
saw the project as a white elephant planted by megalomania and watered by
corruption, rather he hailed the project as “a great achievement for one of the
priests of pragmatic socialism to have been so clever to accommodate this
building within the context of pragmatic African socialism.” The press placed
the value of the house at least half a million pounds. Mbadiwe said it was “at
most £40,000.” After the commissioning, Abubakar then proceeded to his farm in
Bauchi for his annual leave. On Tuesday 4th of January, he joined the retinue
of well-wishers in Kaduna airport to bid farewell to his in-law and godfather,
the Sardauna, who was going to Saudi Arabia to perform Umra, a lesser hajj, in
the company of 184 other state-sponsored pilgrims. The cost of the one-week
pilgrimage to the government was around £17,000.
That morning, The New Nigerian newspaper wrote an unprecedentedly scathing
editorial laying the blame for the region’s financial woes and lack of
development on Sardauna inefficiencies and ineptitude and asked him to “put his
house in order.” When Nzeogwu read the editorial, he went straight to the
paper’s newsroom and demanded to see the writer. He was in his uniform and his
eyes were red. No one knew him nor had seen his face before. The staff did not
know what to make of his demand. The expatriate Managing Editor, ` Charles Sharp then stepped forward.
Nzeogwu shook his hands and said the content and tone of the editorial
reflected their thinking in the army and they had resolved to put that house in
order. The newsroom did not understand what he meant until the morning of the
January 15. The paper was the first to publish for the world the picture of Sardauna’s
house still smouldering in the flames of Nzeogwu.
Meanwhile, the premier of the Western Region, Samuel Ladoke Akintola received a
tip from his NNDP ministers in the federal cabinet that after the Commonwealth
special meeting, the Prime Minister planned to impose a state of emergency on
the Western Region, drop him as an ally and appoint a federal caretaker just as
he did in 1962. Market women staging protests against skyrocketing costs of
foodstuffs, burnout cars, shot and charred corpses, politicians and civil
servants’ houses set on fire, intellectuals’ houses emptied onto the street
were weekly occurrences in the West. Ever since the rift between Awolowo the
Action Group leader and Akintola his deputy, the Western Region that was an
Africans-can-do-it model of governance and jaw-dropping development was turned
into a landscape of sorrow, blood and tears. With fund from the public treasury
and under the command of Fani-Kayode the deputy premier, Akintola’s well-armed
hooligans held the upper hand while AG’s bully-boys sponsored by Dr Michael
Okpara and the NCNC leadership were on the defensive. After the elections of 11th
October 1965, Akintola used the state
broadcasting services to announce false counts while the Okpara-sent Eastern
Nigeria Broadcasting Service team secretly camped in Awolowo’s house declared
the correct results ward by ward. On the night of 15th October, when Akintola
was to announce himself the winner, Wole Soyinka, with a generous assistance
from his pistol, forced the Western Broadcasting Service to air his own
subservice tape asking Akintola to resign and go. Akintola and his supporters
went berserk. The police declared Soyinka wanted and he fled to Okpara in the
East for temporary refuge until his arrest on 27th October 1965.
On Thursday, 13th January when Sardauna
arrived from Mecca, Akintola flew to Kaduna to meet him to dissuade Abubakar
from imposing a state of emergency on the West or replace him with an
Administrator. Akintola had recently buried his daughter and staunchest ally
Mrs Modele Odunjo who on 26th October died allegedly of overdose of sleeping
pills. She was married to Soji Odunjo, who was a staunch enemy of her father
and he was also the son of the Alawiye’s author, Chief J.F. Odunjo whom
Akintola also sacked as the Chairman of Western Region Development Corporation
for being pro-Awolowo. Akintola had also sent his son, Tokunbo (who died in
1973) faraway to Eton College in England. He had imported the first ever
bulletproof car into Nigeria: an £8000 Mercedes Benz. As the 13th Aare Ona
Kakanfo of Yorubaland, he felt unchained and fired up for a total fight. With
more men and firepower, he told the Sardauna, he would crush all disturbances
from AG’s supporters and their Eastern sponsors. The Sardauna promised to
discuss his request with the Prime Minister. Major Timothy Onwuatuegwu, a
27-year-old instructor at the NMTC who was detailed to track Sardauna’s daily
movements reported this surprise meeting with Akintola to the Revolution’s high
command. From his No 13, Kanta Road residence, Nzeogwu promptly dashed to the
Kaduna airport where Sardauna had already gone to see off Akintola. Nzeogwu
went to the VIP lounge saluted the Sardauna and wished Akintola safe journey
back home convinced that in 48 hours at most, both VIPs would be counted among
the dead.
That evening, Nzeogwu went back to the
airport to pick up his best friend Major Olusegun Obasanjo the Officer
Commanding the Field Engineers who had just finished his course in India and
flew in via London. Obasanjo’s deputy Captain Ben Gbuile was supposed to pick
him up at the airport but he was busy mobilising for the Revolution. And so he
telephoned Nzeogwu who promptly came to the airport. Though they slept together
in the same room, Nzeogwu never told him of the death awaiting certain
personalities.
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| Young Ifeajuna (middle) after excelling in a sport competition |
The following day, 14th January, Bernard Floud a British MP and director of
Granada TV (now ITV) which partly owned the Northern Region Television Station
was staying at the plush Hamdala Hotel in Kaduna. He had met with the Sardauna
briefly to discuss funding and expansion of the television reach. They were
supposed to meet the following day Saturday 15th January to continue the
business talk. But there would be no tomorrow.
Lagos
Down in Lagos, at 11 Thompson Avenue Ikoyi, home of Brigadier Zakariya
Maimalari, the commander of the 2nd Brigade, there was an elaborate gathering
of all the senior officers and some junior officers for a cocktail party. It
started at seven in the evening. The compound was a green sprawl patterned with
stout palm trees and garden benches. Ramadan was ongoing but Maimalari did not
concern himself with such rituals. Instead, military stewards in white gloves
moved gracefully around with trays on which were delicately perched wine
bottles with bow ribbons tied to their necks. All senior officers including
their ADCs were in mufti except the Joe Nez-led regimental orchestra who
amongst other songs played popular hits from the British comic play, Pinafore.
Zak Maimalari was under his jacaranda tree with the GOC, Major General ‘John’
Aguiyi-Ironsi, Lt Col Yakubu ‘Jack’ Gowon and Patrick Keatley, a British
journalist for the London Guardian. (Note: all Nigerian officers had English
nicknames so that their erstwhile colonial officers could easily remember them)
As the guests swayed to the orchestra, Jack Gowon said, “There was song of
revelry by night.” It was the famous opening line of Lord Byron’s poem The Eve
of Waterloo in which Byron narrates how the night before their defeat at
Waterloo, French soldiers kept on drinking and dancing and womanising at a
party thereby ignoring the advancement of death and destruction from the
animated enemy forces. In his later account of that night, Keatley said he
replied Jack Gowon: “But surely we need not conclude that Nigeria is facing her
Waterloo?”
Jack replied deferring to his superior, the guest of honour for the night: “The
politicians may not know it but John sees danger but you can take it from me
John will never allow this country to be torn apart. The Federal Army is his
pride and joy and its final barrier that will save us from tribal warfare.” It
was a tactical cleverness on the part of Major Ifeajuna, Maimalari’s Chief of
Staff who organised the party to make “General John” the special guest of honour.
That made it impossible for the pre-selected senior officers in Lagos to find
an excuse not to attend and miss their appointment with death.
Tiv drummers and dancers from 2nd battalion in Ikeja who had performed at the
send-off party for outgoing commander of the battalion Lt Col Hillary Njoku on
12th January filled up the serene Ikoyi air with a native flavour after the
regimental orchestra paused for drinks. Maimalari used the occasion to show-off
his new wife from Kano. His previous wife, Doinmansey Mariamu was killed on
Major Fajuyi’s balcony. They were officially married on 4th January 1961 and
they had two children: Abubakar, born December 1961; Amina, 1962. Fajuyi was
returning from a hunting expedition when he noticed Mrs Maimalari and Mrs Fajuyi
sitting at the balcony. He greeted them cordially, went into the sitting room
and propped his Beretta 12 gauge shotgun against the wall. He had forgotten he
still kept the shotgun loaded and primed when he left for the bedroom. Then
came his little son who began to play with it. The powerful explosion razed
down the sitting room window and ended the previous Mrs Maimalari outside.
On December 1965, Maimalari took another
wife in Kano. The reception was held with great pomp and pageantry at 5th
battalion officer’s mess with the guard of honour raising swords to form a
colonnade for the newlywed to pass under. The wife was 15 years old, the
brigadier, 34 years old. And so he used the cocktail as an opportunity to
introduce the young girl to the South. The Queen’s cousin, Prince William of
Gloucester and two other British diplomats were there at the party. There also
was Colonel Tom Hunt, the former GSO1 at the Army HQ who had turned into the
British High Commission’s military adviser. Colonel Berger of the US Defence
Intelligence Agency was also there under an embassy defence attaché cover.
While he was primarily an overt collector of open source information, he also
engaged in covert collection operations. The CIA station chief’s house was
nearby too. Yet no one suspected that in a few hours’ time, some junior
officers who were drinking and joking with their senior officers would soon end
the lives of one colonel, three lieutenant colonels and turn Maimalari’s new
bride into a teenage widow. It was the eve of Waterloo and the drinks and dance
continued.
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| Major Patrick Chukwuma Nzeogwu |
Around ten o’clock, the junior officers left the party only after all the
senior officers had left as it was customary. To avoid suspicion, they left one
by one to dress up in full combat dress. Ifeajuna was the last to leave being
the busiest person that night. He coordinated the bar, the dancers, drummers,
the food and drinks servers, the orchestra, the cleaners. Once he ensured
everyone was done and left, he went to salute his boss who thanked him for a job
well done.
At 1 o’clock, Ifeajuna having changed into combat dress, stood up to address
the 13 officers including four Majors that had been converging in his sitting
room in Apapa since 11 o’clock. Major Mobolaji Johnson, a staff officer at the
Army HQ and neighbour to Ifeajuna saw nothing unusual in their convergence at
such an hour. Unlike Nzeogwu who at the same time was giving his pre-battle
rousing speech to his fellow soldiers up North to pump up their morale,
Ifeajuna did not have his finger to the trigger. Operation Damisa was organised
in the North to draw and nightly train unsuspecting NCOs (Non Commissioned
Officers) from various military installations under the 1st Brigade for their
Revolution while their officers lied to them that it was part of a course
designed to teach new nocturnal attack procedures. When in December Ifeajuna
asked Maimalari for permission to do the same for the Federal Guards, the
Brigadier refused. Not only because Ikoyi was the national capital with
international presences, but because there was constant uneasiness that the
violence in the Western Region would soon overrun Lagos as well. Conducting
nightly manoeuvres even with dummy bullets and flares instead of grenades would
only heighten public panic and hence was unacceptable.
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| Col Ademulegun |
However, Ifeajuna had a Plan B. Unlike in the North where the military units
did not have call outs for IS (internal security operations), troops and
transport from various units in 2nd Brigade down South and were frequently
requested by the Police high command for IS operations to reinforce police
activities in stamping down riots at a new flash point in the Western Region.
This was the South’s Operation Damisa cover that Ifeajuna used to draw the
pre-selected but unsuspecting NCOs for the Revolution and he had forged the
necessary documents to justify the troops mobilisation. Why was it necessary to
lie to the NCOs? Because no matter their feelings about the government, none
would willingly take up arms against it.
After Ifeajuna finished addressing the officers and reminding them their
assignments and their duty to the nation, he went to the brigade HQ to the
waiting head of the NCOs – Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM) – James Ogbu who
went to turn out the NCOs of Camp, Signal Squadron barracks and Lagos Garrison
Organisation for the so-called emergency IS operation. They were issued arms
and ammunition and divided into units to be commanded by the 4 majors. Only
Major Okafor left without an allocation of troops because he needed special
troops for his own assignment. Away at Ikoyi, Lt. Ezedigbo and 2/Lt. Igweze had
roused and primed these special troops and they were at the Federal Guards
guardroom awaiting further instructions. At exactly 2am, convinced they were
the five points of a bright new star for a new Nigeria and not the five fingers
of a leprous hand, the five Majors led their various units to enact the
Revolution. They never called it a coup nor a mutiny; they convinced themselves
it was a Revolution comparable to Fidel Castro’s.
One of the Majors, Chris Anuforo was a General Staff Officer II (training) at
the Army Headquarters. Assisted by second lieutenant (2/Lt.) C. Ngwuluka, he
led 6 NCOs in private cars to his boss Lt Colonel Kur Mohammed on 1st Park
Lane, Apapa. Mohammed had been acting chief of staff at the Army HQ since
November 1965 when Adeyinka Adebayo went for a course at Imperial Defence
College in London. It was Mohammed that Maimalari always requested to act when
he was not in the country. When Major Anuforo’s unit arrived at his front gate
on foot having left the cars some distance from the house, they tricked the
guards, put them at gunpoint and conducted a room-to-room search for the
Colonel. Mohammed recognised Chris being his immediate superior at the HQ but
Chris had become a rebel and no longer recognised Mohammed as his superior but
an enemy. Anuforo ordered the NCOs to tie his hands with rifle sling.
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| Lt. Col David Ejoor |
They all left for the home of Lt. Col. Unegbe on Point Road which was only two
streets away. Unegbe like Brigadier Maimalari and Lt Col Njoku, the head of 2nd
Battalion were alumni of Command and Staff College in Quetta, Pakistan.
Returning from Quetta, on 1st March 1964, he took over as commander of 5th
Battalion in Kano. He dispatched a company headed by Captain Tim Onwuatuegwu to
quell another of the Tiv riots in Gboko. Later as the Quartermaster General at
the army HQ, Unegbe was responsible for the provision of every article,
clothing, equipment, weapon, ammunition, food, vehicles for the Army in
general. He held the keys to the armoury and the control of armoury was vital
to the success of the second phase of the Revolution. When Anuforo asked Unegbe
for the keys, he refused and was shot immediately in the presence of his wife
Enuma Unegbe. Even if he had handed over the keys, he would still be terminated
with extreme prejudice because he was guilty. His offence was that in a
Revolution packaged together by junior officers, he was a senior officer. If
the Revolution succeeded, what could prevent the senior officers from using
other soldiers to overcome them? Without the senior officers dead, their
Revolution stood no chance. Anuforo then ordered his NCOs subordinates to carry
the corpse to the waiting cars downstairs.
Anuforo then asked Col Mohammed in the car to say his own final prayers too.
The Colonel did not plead for mercy nor remonstrate in any manner; he was
silent and gentle as a breeze even as Anuforo’s bullets reached him from the
back, took his heartbeat and fell him down. Less than an hour after they started,
Anuforo’s unit had completed their mission objective. They drove to the
Officers Mess of the Federal Guards in Ikoyi which was the agreed rendezvous
for the units that have completed their tasks.
Unlike in the North where the Revolutionaries used the Brigade HQ as their
rendezvous, why did the South opt for the Federal Guards? First, it was the
only military unit at the seat of government. All government officials were
easily accessible from there and they could easily be brought there as a corpse
or as a living object to be paraded in front of the TV later in the day. Two,
the Federal Guards was the only military unit whose head was part of the
mutiny. Hence, the resources and manpower of the unit could easily be put in
the service of the Revolution without seeking authorisation from anyone or
forging cover-up signals like was done with other military units. It was the
Federal Guards’ net and radio systems that was cryptically used to coordinate
operations with Nzeogwu’s group up North.
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| Christopher Okigbo: allegedly knew of the plot |
Major Humphrey Chukwuka’s unit assisted by 2/Lt Onyefuru and five other NCOs
had already finished their own assignment too and they were waiting for others
at the Federal Guards Mess. Chukwuka was DAG 1 (Deputy Adjutant General) at the
Army HQ. His assignment was to arrest his boss, Lt Col James Pam. Being the
Adjutant General, Pam was responsible for enlistment of new soldiers, payment
of all soldiers, and promotion of some soldiers. He looked after the discipline
and welfare of all soldiers and supervised their medical care. He was
ultimately responsible for their discharge or burial in the case of death.
When Anuforo’s unit arrived at the Mess
at around 10 minutes past three, they delivered their own two dead bodies and
saw that Pam the objective of Chukwuka’s unit was still alive, unbounded and
under guard in one of Chukwuka’s unit Land Rover. Anuforo called Chukwuka to
the side and reprimanded him for not delivering a finished job. To Anuforo,
nothing, not even the force of conscience or the fear of blood must stop an idea
whose time had come. According to the account which 2/Lt Godwin Onyefuru who
assisted Chukwuka later gave, he said Chukwuka told Anuforo that Pam offered no
resistance during his arrest and followed him voluntarily thereafter, why
should he then kill him? But to Anuforo, Kur Mohammed offered no resistance and
followed him voluntarily too yet he still terminated him with extreme prejudice
because the Revolution demanded it. As Nzeogwu instructed: all senior officers
must no longer be viewed with ordinary eyes but must be “seen through the
sights of your rifles.” Anuforo then ordered Chukwuka to go back with the Pam
and obey the Revolution. Chukwuka refused. Anuforo then angrily entered their
Land Rover with Pam and ordered them to drive. Just drive. He was sick of
abstinence.
During the recruitment for the so-called Revolution, there were moderates who
shared the ideals of a Revolution but they did not favour bloodshed. Ifeajuna
was interested in the firebrands who could stand in solidarity with his resentment
of the political system, embrace the need for a radical solution and boldly
sacrifice as many people as was needed including all their superiors in the
army. One of the reported ways of recruiting was by asking, how do you feel
about the situation in the country? Nzeogwu was reported to have answered: “If
I have my way I will gun down all the politicians.” That was in 1965 after
Ifeajuna succeeded the British Officer Major Gilliver as the DA and QMG at 1st
Brigade in Kaduna. Ifeajuna was pleased with Nzeogwu’s intoxicated temper and
he marked him down as a future asset. Ifeajuna knew the heart was the seat of
fire and the same fire that could give birth to ashes could also refine gold.
And so Ifeajuna preferred firebrands who had cruelty in place of a heart. He
had no use for moderates. He only co-opted them in the plot because they
commanded positions that were strategically useful to the Revolution and
promised them there would be no bloodshed only to arrest and retire the senior
officers. Chukwuka was one of those moderates and he was co-opted because one
of the ways of getting the senior officers was to tell them they were needed in
the office for an emergency. The phones of course would have been disabled so
they would not be able to confirm with other senior officers. Up to the time he
abducted Pam from his bedroom, moderate Chukwuka was still promising Pam’s
wife, Elizabeth, that he would be okay, that he would ensure he was okay. But
the plot’s drivers had other designs.
Anuforo led them to the furthest edge of the Ikoyi Golf Course in the dark. He
asked Pam to come down and say his last prayers. Pam was reported to have
softly pleaded with him: ‘Oh Chris, don’t do this, please.’ Please? Chris? To
listen to pleas and cries was to pay homage to error and testify against the
Revolution. Anuforo squeezed the trigger and watched as the dry grass welcomed
Pam. He then ordered the NCOs to come down and load the dead body unto the
Landover. The men were frightened and they refused to leave the vehicle. Pam,
the Adjutant General of the Army who was responsible for the welfare of every
soldier would just be so summarily executed? They were there when Pam asked his
children to stop crying and told his wife to look after them that he would soon
come back. Was this the IS operation they were woken up for? Anuforo, a devoted
believer in the ability of gun to set the agenda then pointed his still smoking
SMG at the reluctant NCOs. They immediately obeyed without complaint. They all
drove back to the Mess where the body was off-loaded and placed alongside the
bodies of Col. Mohammed and Lt. Col. Arthur Unegbe. Excepting the GOC, that was
a clean sweep of the top command of the Nigerian Army HQ accomplished.
Why was it necessary to drive away from the Mess in order to shoot Pam in the
first place? Because the loud noise of fired guns would wake the Federal Guards
barracks before the time. The Federal Guards was a company strong combat unit
with 5 officers and 179 NCOS. Though they were often used as ceremonial guards
of honour at the airport and at Azikiwe’s State House, they still received
infantry training like weapons training, field craft, minor tactics and signal
communications like any other combat unit. Most of the rebels in the South were
drawn from administrative, signals, army workshop, logistics, supply and
transport units. They were service (not combat) troops. The rest that were
drawn from the Federal Guards which was a combat unit were given the most
difficult assignment of the night.
Major Donatus Okafor, the officer commanding the Federal Guards was tasked with
the assassination of the Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari. Above every other person
in southern operation, it was important Maimalari was cold dead if their
Revolution was to succeed. As the commander of the Southern brigade, Maimalari
had under him all the fighting forces of the battalions, the field artillery
corps, the armoured and mechanised squads. He could effectively mobilise the
entire brigade even if the country was suddenly attacked by a neighbouring
army. He knew how. Without his name, the Revolution would not have taken off at
all. It was forged orders given in his name that Ifeajuna had handed Captain
Nwobosi head of the Ibadan operation and Lt Nwabuchi the liaison officer of the
Enugu operation in case any senior officer challenged their troop mobilisation.
It was forged instructions issued in his name that Ifeajuna had handed Nwobosi
to bring the 105 mm Howitzer from the battery gun park in Abeokuta to Lagos. It
was in his name that Ifeajuna had sent signals over the army signal network to
give the all clear H-message and commence operations two hours earlier. The 3
day Brigade Training Conference which Ifeajuna used to bring all the battalion
commanders together in Lagos for easy assassination was organised in his name.
To ensure that these commanders did not travel back to their stations when the
conference finished by 2pm on 14 January, Ifeajuna persuaded Maimalari to hold
a small cocktail in his house to be attended by the brigade hierarchy. It was
financed with brigade funds withdrawn in the name of Maimalari as Njoku the
next brigade commander later revealed. Maimalari mattered too much. That was
why he had to die.
Unlike Brigadier Ademulegun’s guards that were compromised up North around the
same time, Maimalari’s guards challenged the intruders. Okafor ordered the
sentry to call out the guard commander and tell him to take off his men and
return to the barracks, there was some emergency. Okafor was his officer
commanding but he doubted the emergency. According to the standard operating
procedure, the guards were on duty to a superior officer, any change of
instruction had to come from him not Okafor. The guard commander refused and
Okafor’s men barged in.
Meanwhile the phone was ringing and Maimalari had woken up. It was Pam calling
to report some shootings in his compound and that some soldiers had gained
forceful entry into his bedroom to arrest him. Maimalari had hardly spoken to
Pam that he heard the shootings at his front gate too. Pam also heard the
gunshots before the line went dead. Pam immediately called the GOC stating that
there was evidence of an ongoing munity. Just then Chukwuka re-entered Pam’s
bedroom to inform him that the time they had given him to dress up was over.
The gunshot Maimalari heard was that of Captain Oji the 2ic (second in command)
to Okafor. He had killed Maimalari’s guard commander who adamantly denied the
mutineers entrance. In the process a bullet ricocheted and hit L/Cpl Paul
Nwekwe of 2 Brigade Signal Troop in the neck. They were roused for an internal
security operation. They had prepared themselves to travel as far as Ibadan to
engage Fani-Kayode’s thugs and Adegbenro’s hooligans. But they found themselves
in front of their Brigadier’s residence wondering whether they had not been
turned into demolition ants dedicated to bringing down the roof of their own
house.
Immediately Maimalari heard the splash of submachine gunfire, he dropped the
phone, ran upstairs to pick up his wife whom he did not want to disturb by
picking up the phone downstairs. He fled across the large garden where cocktail
party ended five hours earlier. He kept his wife at the boys’ quarters, scaled
the tall fence and disappeared into the darkness. All senior officers that night
were in their pyjamas when they escaped. They did not have time to dress up in
combat fatigues. Except the GOC who left up fully geared up and even took his
walking stick with crocodile carved into it.
When Okafor realized Maimalari had fled the house, he became very angry. He
ordered his men to comb the compound and shoot the Brigadier on sight; he must
not be given any chance to even surrender. He then jumped into the Land Rover
driven by Lance Corporal Noji and searched around Brown Street, Thompson Avenue
all the way to Glover Road and Bourdillon Road. Without Maimalari dead, they
were doomed. As Ifeajuna later wrote in his manuscript, “We fully realised that to be caught planning, let alone acting, on our
lines, was high treason. And the penalty for high treason is death.”
Therefore, they had to be successful or die trying.
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| Brig. Maimalari |
Maimalari, a Northerner intervened and cut tapes that let Okafor, an Easterner, off the hook. But Okafor had lost the total respect of most soldiers in the barracks for his action towards the elderly illiterate Northern corporal and for stealing their money. Had Maimalari allowed army procedures to properly take its due course, had he not allowed “kindness” to get in the way, that night of nights, he would not had been in a position where he had to be scaling his own high fence, hiding in shrubs, fleeing from the man whom he thought he had saved from punishment. Well, 90 minutes later, it was his own world famous brigade chief of staff, Ifeajuna, who had organized a befitting cocktail at his residence that eventually pulled the trigger, took his heartbeat and finally put him to rest.
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| Lt. Col. Abogo Largema |
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