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In this interview first published by Sunday Guardian of February 17, 2008, Lt-General T.Y. Danjuma, who led the troops that killed then Head of State, General Aguiyi Ironsi, who was visiting Ibadan, and his host, speaks on the events of that day.

You were quoted as saying that your memoirs would be one grenade of a book, why?


You know; there are so many versions of some the critical events that took place over the years in which I was involved. Some of the versions are sanitized; some of them are slightly inaccurate, which I will endeavour to correct. And in correcting them, there will be a few explosions. You know what a grenade is- it explodes.
Unfortunately, for me, each time I pick up my notes and try to write, I have to relive some of those very tense periods and I am so worked up. So, what I have decided to do is oral history- tell the story to a writer who’ll record, transcribe and so on and the book will bear his name and mine.


Will you, in the book correct, for example, the many stories around the coup in Ibadan in 1966 and your alleged role in the killing of Aguiyi-Ironsi and Adekunle Fajuyi?


The interesting thing about the Ibadan coup where Ironsi was arrested is that the full story is already in print. If you take the book written on me by Lindsay Barrett, the account given there with General (Yakubu ) Gowon’s biography written by Professor Isawa Eliaugu – if you read that part of the book, the account thereof what happened – if you put them together, a lot of the grey areas will be clear.


Well, you still have to clear some speculations here concerning your role. It is said that you broke Ironsi’s famous swagger stick, which was thought to be his magic wand. Did you? Did your people drag Ironsi on the road? Did you take him to Iwo road and shoot him?


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.


Who are the “our boys?”


Northern soldiers! Remember, Igbos did the killings that took place in January (1966).
They killed non-Igbo senior Army officers. Only one Igbo officer was killed but Igbo wiped out almost all the senior non –Igbo officers. We rounded up all the people, who did the killings because we all helped Ironsi to abort the January coup. They were rounded up and put in jail, where they were being paid their full salary

They had television, they had everything there despite being detained and nobody was talking about court marshalling them. Instead, the newspapers including the Daily Times wrote to the effect that the boys being detained were national heroes. National heroes because they killed corrupt politicians! He didn’t say anything about Army officers…” they killed corrupt politicians and replaced them with lronsi whom we would call Iron-side”. Very insulting and, in my own opinion, provocative! They were saying that those boys should be freed. Tension started building. Riots broke out in the North and it was because of the riots that broke out in the North that Ironsi started going round to talk to traditional rulers and the Army leaders. I was in his convoy.
We got to Ibadan. We had a meeting with traditional rulers and leaders of thought at the end of which everybody was asked to sing the National Anthem. We all sang the National Anthem. In the night, we had dinner and we came back. We dropped him (Ironsi) at Government House, and then went to the barracks to stay with the Adjutant. Then, at one o’clock in the night (there was) gbam, gbam, gbam on my door. I said what happened. He (Adjutant) said there was some trouble in Abeokuta. I said what was it? He said the man on duty – duty officer – saw the Commanding Officer holding meetings in the officers’ mess … all the officer that attended that meeting were Igbos. They left out non-Igbo officers. The duty officer called one or two soldiers; they cocked their guns, went there and rounded up everybody. They thought it was a joke. One of them had his staff machine gun by his side and he bent down and attempted to pick it up; they opened up on him and shot him down.
They sprayed everybody, killed everybody there and started telephoning.
They rang Ibadan. It was then that this boy woke me up. This was what happened. The press had been calling for the release of the January coup plotters. Now, our boys had created an excuse for the release. After killing these people, it is a draw – they killed Army officers in Lagos and all over Nigeria. Igbos did it. Now, Igbos had been killed in Abeokuta; that’d be the end of it. I said no. I asked the Adjutant, who was in a position to know if the Supreme Commander – at that time lronsi was known as Supreme Commander – had been told? He said, no; he didn’t think so. I said okay; he should get me some soldiers. He brought soldiers. I didn’t come to Ibadan with combat dress. I had to borrow the combat dress of an officer about my size. It was an American combat dress. This officer had just come back from the US. You know, when you travel with the Head of State you have to dress decently, wear service dress and so on. So, I borrowed fatigue, wore it. In fact, I wore it over my pyjamas and left with the Adjutant. I said, “Take me to Government House”. We got there. We asked soldiers who were on duty to ground arms. They all grounded their arms. I told the Adjutant what to do. Soldiers grounded their arms; we disarmed them and armed the soldiers that we brought.
Meanwhile, the anti-tank gun (lronsi convoy) was there, the commander was there. The commander was from the garrison in Ibadan. We knew him; we told him. He said we should use the gun to blow down the building. I said no. There’s no need; the Head of State was there; we had to arrest him. We were there and waited. Any time anybody came out from the building, we arrested him. They removed their shoes and we asked them to sit down.

Read more at

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/07/i-lost-control-after-we-arrested-aguiyi-ironsi-danjuma/

Continued......



Why were you doing this?
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.”
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.
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.


The Adjutant created the problem?


He didn’t create the prob1em. The Igbos who killed our senior officers all over the place created the problem; they created the problem. They sowed the wind and reaped the problem; it wasn’t him (the Adjutant). They were reacting; they were avenging what happened in January. The July coup was a revenge coup.


What’s the name of the Adjutant?


Garba Paiko!


Was he a Major?


Major! He was a Second Lieutenant.


You were his senior?


Oh yes! But when it comes to coup-making, there’s no rank. The coup is a bandwagon of hierarchy. This was his unit. He knew the boys; I didn’t know them. But he knew me. He used me…


You’re lucky they didn’t mistake you for an Igbo.


Oh, easily! I was lighter in complexion than I am now. Many times, they took me for an Igbo.


So, he (Adjutant) didn’t create the problem?


I don’t think you people know what happened. What would you do when you went to bed and woke up and found that all the people from your area in the Army, innocent people were killed in their beds, some of them even with their wives – all done by Igbo officers? We bottled up this for six months from January to July. Then, the opportunity came for revenge.
In the Army, you are taught that when you are fired upon, you take cover and return fire. We didn’t return fire immediately. We gave Ironsi a chance to deal with the people who killed our seniors. He did not. We couldn’t understand! If politicians were corrupt, why didn’t you confine yourself to killing politicians? If it was necessary that the Army should take over, why was it that this same Army should eliminate the cream of that Army and leave us with absolutely useless people, like Ironsi who was a desk-clerk Head of State? We couldn’t understand it. But we bottled this up till July and when the opportunity came, we decided to revenge. This is what happened…
People blame you for what happened in Ibadan, but as it is, the Adjutant more or less, instigated the soldiers…
Yes, this is what I suspect. My suspicion is borne out by the fact that he did not do what I would do if I were in his position. He (Adjutant) approved of what the boys did.

Danjuma said they used him, and he lost control .

This his story na pure wash....

Nigeria is no better now than it was in the military era. Democracy is a scam. The most important thing is having leaders who truly care for the people.

We need the full account of the events of that night and it can best be told by the active participants like Gen Danjuma.
Whosoever have access to his books should mention me.

Article is too long, sorry... It even carried part 2 sef!

Okay

MelesZenawi:
Danjuma said they used him, and he lost control .


This his story na pure wash....

But you that your mother was not even born then knows the true unwashed story?

thesicilian:
Nigeria is no better now than it was in the military era. Democracy is a scam. The most important thing is having leaders who truly care for the people.

Actually Nigeria was better off during the military rule than democracy.
Democracy has never been favourable to Nigeria, when Shagari was president (Democracy), the economy was so bad that he was begging for rice from the US.
Most structures erected today was from military. Democracy has given us bad leaders, thieves and crooks masquerading as democrats.
The best Lagos governor was a military man... Col. Marwa.
Third mainland bridge was erected by the military government.... If it were today in democracy, they will keep postponing and postponing with nothing to show for it like they've been doing for the fourth mainland bring and River Niger bridge.

what a world!!!!

I read from A-Z . This story is inaccurate and fallacy, more fact were hiding.
The Nigeria military coup era is more or less of the Game of throne. The events is still on fold and we can clearly see it till date . The issue of majority dominant over the minority still persisted till date .
If Nigeria should be a better place their must be constitution amendment to bring equity and fairness or if that could be rigid we can then result to decentralization of power .
Without this Nigeria will be resolve a pencil in peers hole .

The Igbos are the cause of all the political problems Nigeria is suffering today.

their greed for domination led the Igbo race into chaos and perpetual marginalisation!

today, they have reaped and are still reaping what they sow!

unknown to them that education is the key to domination and they have educated people then,
so the Igbo's just blow up their chance into oblivion!

This is the summary of what lead to the counter coup, the pogrom and subsequently, the civil war.

Northern soldiers! Remember, Igbos did the killings that took place in January (1966).
They killed non-Igbo senior Army officers. Only one Igbo officer was killed but Igbo wiped out almost all the senior non –Igbo officers . We rounded up all the people, who did the killings because we all helped Ironsi to abort the January coup. They were rounded up and put in jail, where they were being paid their full salary

They had television, they had everything there despite being detained and nobody was talking about court marshalling them. Instead, the newspapers including the Daily Times wrote to the effect that the boys being detained were national heroes. National heroes because they killed corrupt politicians! He didn’t say anything about Army officers… ” they killed corrupt politicians and replaced them with lronsi whom we would call Iron-side”. Very insulting and, in my own opinion, provocative!

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.


What would you do when you went to bed and woke up and found that all the people from your area in the Army, innocent people were killed in their beds, some of them even with their wives – all done by Igbo officers? We bottled up this for six months from January to July. Then, the opportunity came for revenge.
In the Army, you are taught that when you are fired upon, you take cover and return fire. We didn’t return fire immediately. We gave Ironsi a chance to deal with the people who killed our seniors. He did not. We couldn’t understand! If politicians were corrupt, why didn’t you confine yourself to killing politicians? If it was necessary that the Army should take over, why was it that this same Army should eliminate the cream of that Army and leave us with absolutely useless people, like Ironsi who was a desk-clerk Head of State?

God questions. If the coup plotters killed politicians because they were corrupt, why then did they kill senior military officers, especially those from non Igbo areas?

MelesZenawi:
Danjuma said they used him, and he lost control .


This his story na pure wash....

tell your own,let's hear.

Strategically released article to destroy any traction of unity in the south against rampaging jihadists backed by the fg, this too shall pass away



No to RUGA

RZArecta2:
Strategically released article to destroy any traction of unity in the south against rampaging jihadists backed by the fg, this too shall pass away



No to RUGA

This is why I sometimes don't believe it is actually humans behind some usernames in nairaland. They sound more like bots that repeat the same thing irrespective of topic.
This is the same Danjuma that is at odds with Buhari because of Fulani herdsmen. This same Danjuma has told people to defend themselves against Fulani herdsmen. But every topic must contain RUGA, even when we are talking of events that happened more than 50 years ago.

The importance of history cannot be over rated

When the military was still the military
Now small small children are dealing with soldiers like sugar cane
What a mess of a country
I still don't believe that this is the whole truth we need a lie detector examination for all past leaders one that will effectively determine a lie
Oooh! Patrick Jane if only u were real

qwertyboss:
The Igbos are the cause of all the political problems Nigeria is suffering today.

their greed for domination led the Igbo race into chaos and perpetual marginalisation!

today, they have reaped and are still reaping what they sow!

unknown to them that education is the key to domination and they have educated people then,
so the Igbo's just blow up their chance into oblivion!

Why won't you blame them.
When u have been trained and brainwashed to blame them even when you fail to pass excreta as at when due...

wirinet:

[s]This is why I sometimes don't believe it is actually humans behind some usernames in nairaland. They sound more like bots that repeat the same thing irrespective of topic.
This is the same Danjuma that is at odds with Buhari because of Fulani herdsmen. This same Danjuma has told people to defend themselves against Fulani herdsmen. But every topic must contain RUGA, even when we are talking of events that happened more than 50 years ago[/s].

brush your teeth

This danjuma man is not smart at all. In his story he claimed that he arrested Ironsi, the commander within a few hours of some officers shooting some 'suspicious' Igbo officers in Abeokuta. Who empowered him to arrest his superior? Just admit your part in the coup and stop telling daft lies.

Danjuma you are funny, you went ahead to arrest someone that you know is innocent of what happened.

Sai Danjuma

....and Igbos will strike back, you can bookmark this, it may take decades or centuries, but Igbos will strike back....it may happen after Igbos have left Nigeria to form their own super great/powerful nation and then they will strike back as another nation invading another nation just as Germany struck back at the rest of Europe for what they did to them, and when Germany struck back in 1945, Europe lost so much.....French king ran away, Queen Elizabeth was in fear, not until USA and Russia stepped in to help them find peace.

When Igbos will strike, the story of German invasion of France and London will be a joke...the whole north will be in flames. It won't be fought by foot soldiers, it will be fought by sophisticated air weapons that will level what is left of barbaric northern Nigeria. London is on flames will be a childsplay to what will befall Northern Nigeria when the Almighty Eastern Eagle will strike, yes it must happen to also avenge the years of killing and marginalization of our people just as you avenged yours

Danjuma even as your people are paying the huge price of their atrocities against Igbos in 1966, Igbos will strike back nonetheless, but when, I cannot tell, but it must happen because you useless souls have never for one day shown any remorse for the evil you all perpetrated against civilian Igbos....I don't care about what happened between military people and politicians, but involving innocent, unarmed Igbo civilians in your madness of 1966 was your greatest mistake and reason your region will continue to reap the seeds of the evil they sowed

For all those believing criminal Danjuma and other Northern Liars that January 1966 coup was an Igbo agenda coup should read below article:

IBADAN

The coup caught many of the army’s high command by surprise as many of them were away from their posts. Lt-Col Francis Fajuyi was on leave and command of the Lagos battalion was in the process of being transferred from Lt-Col Hilary Njoku to Lt-Col Gowon who was returning from a course overseas. In Ibadan the Premier of the western region Chief Samuel Akintola had been forewarned that soldiers were coming to get him. Akintola had heard rumours of a coup and had travelled to Kaduna to warn the Premier of the northern region Ahmadu Bello. Frustrated that his warnings failed to elicit the required degree of urgency from Bello, Akintola returned to Ibadan and armed himself with a rifle. His deputy Chief Fani-Kayode was first arrested by the coupists. After this arrest, Kayode’s wife informed Akintola of what had happened. Shortly afterward a detachment of soldiers led by Captain Emmanuel Nwobosi arrived at Akintola’s residence. Upon sighting the soldiers, Akintola opened fire – lightly wounding a few of them including Capt Nwobosi. After bravely fighting for his life and engaging the soldiers in a gunfight, Akintola was shot dead by Nwobosi and his men.



THE ROLE OF NORTHERN SOLDIERS

Not many realize that several officers of northern origin took part in Nigeria’s first military coup. The “Igbo coup” tag attached to the Majors’ assault ignores the fact that scores of northern officers took part in the Lagos operations, and even assisted Nzeogwu when he stormed the residence of the Northern Region’s premier: Ahmadu Bello. Nzeogwu later described the detachment of troops accompanying him to Bello’s house as “a truly Nigerian gathering” (New Nigerian – 18th January 1966). Nzeogwu pointed out that the northern soldiers accompanying him “had the chance to drop out. More than that, they had bullets. They had been issued with bullets but I was unarmed. If they disagreed they could have shot me….most of the Other Ranks were Northerners but they followed”. Among the prominent northern soldiers that helped Nzeogwu to overthrow the Northern Region’s government was John Atom Kpera. Kpera later became the military governor of Benue State. Many of the soldiers that accompanied Major Ifeajuna when he abducted the Prime Minister: Tafewa Balewa, were also northerners.

Further reading here>>>http://www.gamji.com/article6000/news6574.htm

From what I just read in Danjuma's account , it would take a divine intervention for us to have a Nigerian president of Igbo origin during the life time of all this retired Generals, their fear is not for the future of Nigeria state but it's coming from their past misdeeds against the tribe.

qwertyboss:
The Igbos are the cause of all the political problems Nigeria is suffering today.

their greed for domination led the Igbo race into chaos and perpetual marginalisation!

today, they have reaped and are still reaping what they sow!

unknown to them that education is the key to domination and they have educated people then,
so the Igbo's just blow up their chance into oblivion!

People who had built Empires and societies over thousand years.... when they were told Nigeria would be their new Empire they were disgusted and frowned.....they rejected the thrash and said it is unbefitting, and they set about mastering a new modern society for them and generations to come. These were the Yorubas.


Those who had never been rulers of Empires nor built societies....they looked at Nigeria as the best possession and treasure anyone could ever dream of....and they got over themselves with zeal and rush to own it at all cost. They made it their goal to possess what 60years ago Yoruba saw and rejected as thrash. In their overzealousness they ruined everything, they invaded the modernity erected by Yorubas and ruined that as well. These were Ibos and Fulanis.

You ask yourself...is Nigeria not a thrash

Im an awakener, and speak with facts!

While we wait for Gowon and Danjuma's official account of the coup, it's sad to see persistent distortion of history and abuse of common sense in this reasoning.

Labeling it Igbo coup was a long formulated Fulani plan to use people like Danjuma, even the adjunctant officer did not take control of events all by himself, he was following a plan, long designed by unseen hands determined to foist Fulani hegemony on Nigeria.

Of course the Igbos made their own mistakes, because they were never really organized as portrayed by unseen Fulani masterminds. If they were organized, why would some Igbo officers like Ojukwu be fighting the coupists, his own people?

If you had 67% of Nigerian army officer's cader as Igbos at that time, simple statistics would tell you that you couldn't have a coup without having majority of them identified as Igbos.

Nevertheless, there were Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Tiv, Ijaw, Idoma, and Nupe officers involved in that coup, but it was easier to label it Igbo coup, especially after it failed in some parts of the country.

While history would forgive Gowon and Danjuma for retaliating against Igbo officers, God in heaven would never forgive these inept and mediocre officers for the massacre of helpless children, women, and old people simply because they were Igbos.

Whoever supported the genocide against Igbos, because of the coup allegedly planned by Igbo officers in 1966, should also support a genocide against Fulanis, because Fulani herdsmen have been actually terrorizing fellow Nigerians without any provocation today.

..