FCT, Abuja – Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, said former Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida, never said the coup of January 15th, 1966 was not an Igbo coup.
Fani-Kayode said the 1966 coup was an ethnic one and that ethnicity was the Igbo.
He said Babangida agreed that the coup took on an “unmistakable ethnic coloration”.
The chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) stated this via his X page @realFFK on Monday, February 24, 2025, while reacting to Babangida’s book, ‘A Journey In Service.
“I hate to burst your bubble but there is NOWHERE in IBB’s book that he said that the coup of January 15th, 1966 was NOT an Igbo coup.”
FFK as he is fondly called said those who said Babangida said the “coup was not an Igbo coup are either misguided and misinformed or are being mischievous”.
He quoted a part of Babangida’s book to argue his point.
“It was heinously callous for Nzeogwu to have murdered Sir Ahmadu Bello and his wife, Hafsatu, because not only were they eminently adored by many but also because they were said not to have put up a fight. From that moment the putsch was infiltrated by “outsiders” to its supposed original intention and it took on an unmistakable ethnic coloration compounded by the fact that there were no related coup activities in the Eastern Region”-
According to Fani-Kayode, 99% of the officers who planned and executed the coup were Igbo and their victims were non-Igbo military officers and political leaders.
The former minister said the coup was “UNMISTAKEABLY an Igbo one and IBB made this very clear when he wrote about its “ethnic coloration”.
“The facts are clear and they are as follows. 99% of the officers that planned and executed the Jan. 15th, 1966 coup and that were involved in the mutiny were Igbo and 99% of those that were murdered by them were non-Igbo military officers and political leaders in some cases including their wives.”
He urged people not to sugarcoat the bitter truth, revise history, and not to tell lies.
He concluded by saying:
“The truth is that the Jan. 15th, 1966 coup WAS an Igbo one and I am glad to say that IBB has confirmed it.
“This is a FACT and as our journalist friends will tell you ‘facts are sacred and opinion is cheap”.
