July 29, 1966 A Day Ndigbo Must Never Forget

July 29, 1966 A Day Ndigbo Must Never Forget

July 29, 1966 A Day Ndigbo Must Never Forget

Today in history marks the anniversary of the July 29, 1966 counter-coup plot by mostly northern and Western soldiers led by
Lieutenant Colonel Murtala Muhammed and other high rank Participating Officers: Included Major Theophilus Danjuma, Lieutenant Muhammadu Buhari, Lieutenant Ibrahim Babangida, and Second Lieutenant Sani Abacha.— one of the most painful turning points in Igbo and Nigerian history.

On this day, Major General J.T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi, Nigeria’s first military Head of State and son of Umuahia-Ibeku, Abia State, was arrested in Ibadan and brutally murdered alongside Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi and 240 Southern soldiers were systematically killed, with three-quarters of them being Igbo officers. Hundreds of other ranks and civilians also fell.

This was not just the killing of men. It was the shattering of trust.

The July 29 killings, alongside the pogroms of May 29 and Sept 29, 1966, forced over 1 million Igbos to flee back to the Eastern Region. It directly set the stage for May 30, 1967 — the declaration of Biafra and the 30-month civil war that followed.

We remember General Ironsi, the first indigenous G.O.C of the Nigerian Army and first African Commander of UN Peacekeeping Forces. We remember officers like Capt. Johnson Ibeawuchi Chukwueke, gunned down at Ikeja while his 8-week-old baby was at home.
We remember every name lost, every family broken.

July 29 is not a day of celebration. It is a day of sober reflection, of history, and of “never again.”

May the souls of all who died on this day rest in peace.
May we learn, so history does not repeat itself.

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