Veteran journalist and cultural icon, Oloye Lekan Alabi has shed light on the harrowing events of Nigeria’s first military coup, revealing the dramatic moment Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu volunteered to personally confront and kill his former mentor, the Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Edmund Obilo on State Affairs, a programme aired on SplashFM 105.5, Alabi narrated how Nzeogwu’s fellow soldiers, gripped by fear refused to confront the revered Sardauna of Sokoto during the January 1966 coup.
“Most of the officers backed out. Who was going to face Ahmed Bello?. They said who?, No, not me,” Alabi recounted. “So everybody backed out. Then he said, ‘I will.’ He walked into his bedroom and gave the soldiers he took to Sardauna’s residence an order that if after 10 minutes I don’t come out, bring this building down.”
The revelation adds a chilling detail to the already tense narrative of the January 15, 1966 coup, in which several top political and military leaders were assassinated in a failed attempt to take over power.
Sir Ahmadu Bello was not only a regional leader but also a highly respected elder statesman. That Nzeogwu, reportedly close to him, would lead the operation that ended his life has remained one of the most controversial aspects of Nigeria’s political history.
Alabi’s account paints a portrait of both cold resolve and internal conflict within the coup ranks, illustrating the emotional and moral weight carried by those who carried out the country’s first violent change of power.
