Humiliated in De*ath, Humiliated in Bu*rial: How Aguiyi-Ironsi Was Buried Three Times

After his tor*ture and exe*cut*ion by soldiers led by Major Theophilus Danjuma, Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, Nigeria’s first military Head of State, was buried in a shallow grave by his executors, who abandoned his remains in an unmarked grave.

With the whereabouts of the Head of State unknown, the Military Governor of the Eastern Region, Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, called on the most senior surviving officer, General Babafemi Ogundipe, to assume control and stabilize the situation. However, General Ogundipe fled the country. Lieutenant Colonel Yakubu Gowon was declared Head of State.

Ojukwu, refused to recognize Gowon’s authority or attend any meeting with him until the fate of General Aguiyi-Ironsi was formally clarified.

Eventually, Gowon confirmed that Aguiyi-Ironsi had been murd*er*ed. Following this confirmation, his remains were exhumed from the shallow grave and reburied in a cemetery in Ibadan, marking his second burial.

Lieutenant Colonel Ojukwu rejected this burial as humiliating and unacceptable. He insisted that, as a former Head of State and a Major General of the Nigerian Army, Aguiyi-Ironsi deserved a full state burial with military honours, and that, as an Igbo man, he should be laid to rest among his ancestors. The Federal Government refused this demand, but Ojukwu insisted on it.

This impasse formed part of the tensions preceding the Aburi meeting in Ghana between Lieutenant Colonel Yakubu Gowon and Lieutenant Colonel Ojukwu. Following the meeting, the remains of General Aguiyi-Ironsi were released to Ojukwu in his capacity as Military Governor of the Eastern Region.

Consequently, on 27 January 1967, General Aguiyi-Ironsi was accorded a dignified state funeral with full military honours in his hometown of Ibeku-Umuahia, where he was laid to rest for the third and final time.