Christian Anuforo, born in 1938 and killed in August 1966,

Christian Anuforo, born in 1938 and killed in August 1966,

Christian Anuforo, born in 1938 and killed in August 1966, was a Nigerian Army major and one of the principal plotters of the coup of 15 January 1966, an event that disrupted Nigeria’s early democratic experiment and ushered in military rule.

Anuforo attended Saint John’s College in Kaduna, where he formed a close friendship with Kaduna Nzeogwu. He later trained at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, where he received his commission in 1961.

By the mid 1960s, Anuforo was serving as a staff officer at Army Headquarters. Alongside other young majors such as Kaduna Nzeogwu, Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Adewale Ademoyega, Don Okafor, Humphrey Chukwuka, Fola Oyewole, O. Olafemiyan, G. Adeleke, and Timothy Onwuatuegwu, he became involved in a conspiracy to overthrow the civilian government led by Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and President Nnamdi Azikiwe. The plotters justified their actions by pointing to what they saw as widespread corruption and poor governance.

Accounts from the period often portray Anuforo as one of the most ruthless participants in the coup. According to investigations by the Nigerian Police Special Branch, he played a direct role in the killings of several prominent figures, including Lieutenant Colonels James Pam and Arthur Unegbe, Colonel Kur Mohammed, and the Federal Minister of Finance, Festus Okotie Eboh.

His life came to a violent end during the turmoil that followed the counter coup of July 1966. In August of that year, soldiers of the 4th Battalion, who had attended a funeral in Benin, learned that Anuforo and several other detained coup plotters were being held in Benin prison. Motivated by anger over what many northern soldiers viewed as an ethnically targeted coup, the troops broke into the prison seeking revenge. Anuforo and other detainees, including warrant officers James Ogbu and B. Okuge, and sergeants Chukwu, Ogbuhara, and Ndukife, were tortured and killed.