JANUARY 15th 1966: A Morning Of Murder, Mayhem And Carnage - Femi Fani-Kayode Shares His Story

Nigerian politician and lawyer, Femi Fani-Kayode has narrated his experience of January 15th 1966 a coup d’etat, which resulted in the assassination of several prominent politicians and high-ranking military officials in Nigeria.

Femi Fani-Kayode shared a firsthand account of the key event, offering a unique perspective that could redefine Nigeria's historical narrative and leave a lasting impact.

Former Minister of Culture and Tourism of Nigeria, Femi Fani-Kayode, revealed that he was an eyewitness to the January 15, 1966 massacre and also lost loved ones in the tragedy.

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In his account of the incident, Fani-Kayode, described the chaotic scene that happened to his father in their home and how he escaped being killed.

He also explained that the January 15th coup triggered a chain reaction of devastating events that have had a lasting impact on our nation, and still felt to this day.

He encouraged people to put aside their differences, forgive one another, and come together to promote national healing, growth, and progress.

"In the early hours of the morning of January 15th 1966 a coup d’etat took place in Nigeria which resulted in the murder of a number of leading political figures & senior army officers.

This was the first coup in the history of our country and 98 per cent of the officers that planned & led it were from a particular ethnic nationality in the country. 

According to Max Siollun, a notable and respected historian whose primary source of information was the Police report compiled by the Police's Special Branch after the failure of the coup, during the course of the investigation & after the mutineers had been arrested & detained, names of the leaders of the mutiny were as follows: 

Major Emmanuel Arinze Ifeajuna, Major Chukwuemeka Kaduna Nzeogwu, Major Chris Anuforo, Major Tim Onwutuegwu, Major Chudi Sokei, Major Adewale Ademoyega, Major Don Okafor, Major John Obieno, Captain Ben Gbuli, Captain Emmanuel Nwobosi, Captain Chukwuka and Lt. Oguchi. 

It is important to point out that I saw the Special Branch report myself and I can confirm Siollun's findings.

These were indeed the names of ALL the leaders of the January 15th 1966 mutiny & all other lists are FAKE. 

The names of those that they murdered in cold blood or abducted were as follows. 

Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Prime Minister of Nigeria (murdered),

Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto and the Premier of the Old Northern Region (murdered), Sir Kashim Ibrahim, the Shettima of Borno and the Governor of the Old Northern Region (abducted), Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, the Aare Ana Kakanfo of Yorubaland and the Premier of the Old Western Region (murdered), Chief Remilekun Adetokunboh Fani-Kayode Q.C., the Balogun of Ife, the Deputy Premier of the Old Western Region and my beloved father (abducted), Chief Festus Samuel Okotie-Eboh, the Oguwa of the Itsekiris and the Minister of Finance of Nigeria (murdered), Brigadier Samuel Adesujo Ademulegun, Commander of the 1st Brigade, Nigerian Army (murdered), Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari, Commander of the 2nd Brigade, Nigerian Army (murdered), Colonel James Pam (murdered), Colonel Ralph Sodeinde (murdered), Colonel Arthur Unegbe (murdered), Colonel Kur Mohammed (murdered),

Lt. Colonel Abogo Largema (murdered),

Alhaja Hafsatu Bello, the wife of the Sardauna of Sokoto (murdered), Alhaji Zarumi, traditional bodyguard of the Sardauna of Sokoto (murdered), Mrs. Lateefat Ademulegun, the wife of Brigadier Ademulegun who was 8 months pregnant at the time (murdered), Ahmed B. Musa (murdered), Ahmed Pategi (murdered), Sgt. Daramola Oyegoke (murdered), Police Constable Yohana Garkawa (murdered), Police Constable Musa Nimzo (murdered), Police Constable Akpan Anduka (murdered) Police Constable Hagai Lai (murdered) and Police Constable Philip Lewande (murdered). 

In order to reflect the callousness of the mutineers permit me to share under what circumstances some of their victims were murdered & abducted. 

Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was abducted from his home, beaten, mocked, tortured, forced to drink alcohol, humiliated and murdered after which his body was dumped in a bush along the Lagos-Abeokuta road.

Sir Ahmadu Bello was killed in the sanctity of his own home with his wife Hafsatu & his loyal security assistant Zurumi. 

Zurumi drew his sword to defend his principal whilst Hafsatu threw her body over her dear husband in an attempt to protect him from the bullets.

Chief S. L. Akintola was gunned down as he stepped out of his house in the presence of his family and Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh was beaten, brutalised, abducted from his home, maimed & murdered & his body was dumped in a bush.

Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari had held a cocktail party in his home the evening before which was attended by some of the young officers that went back to his house early the following morning and murdered him. 

The events of that night were so devastating that they left a lasting impact on the nation, forever changing its people.

...This was because he gave me hope and he spoke with kindness and compassion. At that point all the fear and trepidation left me. 

With new-found 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 and that everything would be okay.

I held on to the words of that soldier and that morning, despite all that was going on around me, I never cried again. 

Four years ago when he was still alive I made contact with and spoke to Captain Nwobosi, the mutineer who led the team to our house and that led the Ibadan operation that night about these events. 

He confirmed my recollection of what happened in our house saying that he remembered listening to my mother screaming and watching me cry. 

He claimed that he was the officer that had comforted me and assured me that my father would not be killed. 

I have no way of confirming if it was really him but I have no reason to doubt his words. 

He later asked me to write the foreword of his book which sadly he never launched or released because he passed away a few months later. 

The mutineers took my father away and as the lorry drove off my mother kept on wailing and crying and so was everyone else in the house except for me.

From there they went to the home of Chief S.L. Akintola 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 sceaming 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 prepared for them. 

Instead of coming out to meet them, he had stationed some of his policemen inside the house 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 operation their plan had been to pick up my father and Chief Akintola from their homes in Ibadan, take them to Lagos, gather them together with the other political leaders that had been abducted and then execute them all together.

The difficulty they had was that Akintola resisted them and he and his policemen ended up wounding two of the soldiers that came to his home. 

One of the soldiers, whose name was apparently James, had his fingers blown off and the other had his ear blown off.

After some time 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 slaughtered him.

My father witnessed Akintola’s cold-blooded murder in utter shock, disbelief and horror because he was tied up in the back of the lorry from where he could see everything that transpired.

The soldiers were apparently enraged by the fact that two of their men had been wounded and that Akintola resisted and delayed them. 

After they killed him they moved on to Lagos with my father. 

When they got there they drove to the Officer’s Mess at Dodan Barracks in Ikoyi where they tied him up, sat him on the floor of a room, and placed him under close arrest by surrounding him with six very hostile and abusive soldiers. 

Thankfully about two hours later he was rescued, after a dramatic gun battle, by loyalist troops led by one Lt. Tokida who stormed the room with his men and who was under the command of Captain Paul Tarfa (as he then was). 

They had been ordered to free my father by Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon who was still in control of the majority of troops in Dodan Barracks and who remained loyal to the Federal Government. 

...Bullets flew everywhere in the room during the gunfight that ensued whilst my father was tied up in the middle of the floor with no cover. All that yet not one bullet touched him!

This was clearly the Finger of God and once again divine providence as under normal circumstances few could have escaped or survived such an encounter without being killed either by direct fire or a stray bullet. For this I give God the glory. 

Meanwhile three of the soldiers that had tied my father up and placed him under guard in that room were killed right before his eyes and two of Takoda's troops that stormed the room to save him lost their lives in the encounter. 

At this point permit me to mention the fact that outside of my father, providence also smiled favourably upon and delivered Sir Kashim Ibrahim, the Shettima of Borno and the Governor of the Old Northern Region from death that morning. 

He was abducted from his home in Kaduna by the mutineers but was later rescued by loyalist troops.

When the mutineers took my father away everyone in our home thought he had been killed. 

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 at the time, who was a very close friend of my father and who later became a Judge of the Court of Appeal.

At this point the whole country had been thrown into confusion and no one knew what was going on. 

We heard lots of stories and did not know what to make of what anymore. There was chaos and confusion and the entire nation was gripped by fear.

Two days later my father finally called us on the telephone and he told us that he was okay. 

When we heard his voice, I kept telling my mother “I told you, I told you.” 

Justice Ademola and his dear wife who was my mother's best friend, a Ghanian lady by the name of Aunty Frances, were weeping witgh joy. 

My mother was also weeping as were my brother and sister and I just kept rejoicing because I knew that he would not be killed and I had told them all.

I believe that whoever that soldier was that promised me that my father would not be killed was used by God to convey a message to me that morning even in the midst of the mayhem and fear. I believe that God spoke through him that night.

Whoever he was the man spoke with confidence and authority and this constrains me to believe that he was a commissioned officer or a man in authority. 

These mutineers who carried out this mutiny and coup were not alone: they got some backing from elements in the political class who identified with them. 

Some have said that it was an Igbo coup whilst others have said that it was an UPGA (referring to the political alliance between the Action Group and the NCNC) coup but that is a story for another day.

Whatever anyone calls it or believes two things are clear: the consequences of the action that those young officers took that night were far-reaching and the way and manner in which they killed their victims was deplorable and barbaric. 

Such savagery had never been witnessed in our shores. There has never been another night like that and the results of that night have been devastating and profound.

In my view not enough Nigerians appreciate this fact. 

Some in our country cannot forgive those who participated in the mutiny and though I do not share that sentiment or disposition this is understandable. 

Others believe that those young men (they were all in their 20’s) did the right thing & claim that those killings were necessary & heroic.

This is a sentiment which I not only despise but which I also find unacceptable & appalling. 

There is nothing heroic about rebellion & the cold blooded murder of innocent & defenceless men & women.

....The coup affected the country in an equally profound manner because the events of that night led to a counter-coup six months later. It was a devastating and disproportionate response.

Sadly after that came the horrendous pogroms and slaughter of the Igbo in the North which eventually led to the civil war in which millions of people died, including innocent children. This was also horrendous and deplorable.

Yet the bitter truth is that if the new Head of State, General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi who himself happened to be Igbo, had done the right thing and actually prosecuted the ringleaders of the coup namely Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, Major Anufuro, Major Ademoyega, Major Timothy Onwuatuegwu, Captain Emmanuel Nwobosi, Captain Okafor, Captain Ben Gbulie and all the other young officers that planned and executed the mutiny of January 15th 1966 after it was crushed, there would have been no northern revenge coup six months later.

I have not added Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna (who was actually the leader of the coup) to the list because he could not have been locked up or prosecuted by General Aguiy-Ironsi simply because he ran away to Ghana immediately after the mutiny in Lagos failed and after he and his co-mutineers were routed by Lt. Col. Jack Yakubu Gowon and his gallant officers.

For some curious reason after the coup was successfully crushed, General Aguiyi-Ironsi just locked these young mutineers up and he refused to prosecute them. 

This bred suspicion from the ranks of the northern officers given the fact that Aguiyi-Ironsi himself was an Igbo.

The suspicion was that he had some level of sympathy for the mutineers and the fact that they did not kill him during the course of the mutiny only fuelled that suspicion.

The northern officers also felt deeply aggrieved about the wholesale slaughter of their key political figures that night. 

In my view that, together with Aguiyi-Ironsi’s insistence on promulgating the Unification Decree which abolished the federal system of government and sought to turn Nigeria into a unitary state, made the revenge coup of July 29th 1966 inevitable.

The revenge coup was planned and led by Major Murtala Ramat Mohammed (as he then was) and it was supported and executed by other young northern officers like Major T.Y. Danjuma (as he then was), Major Martins Adamu and many others. 

This is the coup that was to put Lt. Col. Jack Gowon (as he then was) in power & when they struck it was a very bloody and brutal affair.

The response of the northern officers to the mutiny and terrible killings that took place on the night of January 15th 1966 & to General Aguiyi-Ironsi’s apparent procrastination and reluctance to ensure that justice was served to the mutineers was not only devastating but also frightful.

300 hundred Army officers of Igbo extraction who were perceived to be sympathetic to the January 15th mutineers were killed that night including the Head of State General Aguiyi-Ironsi & the Military Governor of the old Western Region who was hosting him, the courageous Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi. This was very sad & unfortunate.

What happened on the night of January 15th 1966 was indefensible, unjustifiable, unacceptable, unnecessary, unprovoked & utterly & completely barbaric. 

I beg to differ with those that believe that there was anything good about such a mutinous bloodbath & this is especially so given the fact that it was carried out by a small handful of ungrateful, cowardly & treacherous men. 

Blood calls for blood: when you shed blood other people want to shed your own blood as well & sadly this is the way of the world. 

The minute the shedding of blood in the quest of power becomes the norm we are all diminished and dehumanised: and this applies to both the perpetrators and the victims.

The January 15th coup set off a cycle of events which had cataclysmic consequences for our country & which we are still reeling from today."