A touching excerpt from, Why We Struck: The Story Of The First Nigerian Coup ~ by Major Adewale Ademoyega. Page.142-3
"The next most important cause of our failure was the behaviour of Ifeajuna himself. Having seen that Ironsi had got loose and was already raising troops against us, Ifeajuna took Okafor with him and both of them suddenly disappeared from our midst. This raises the serious question of whether or not there was a common collusion between the two of them, and whether Okafor's failure to arrest the GOC was not a case of deliberate or willful omission. To my mind and to be quite honest, Ifeajuna should have been angry with Okafor the same way that I was angry with him. Then, if Ifeajuna had been faithful to me like I was to him, he should have stuck to me and both of us together would have planned the next line of action. This ought to be the natural course of things because Ifeajuna and I had worked together alone on this Lagos sector project for the previous three months, and more or less to the exclusion of the other majors who were brought in individually as the need for them arose. Why the sudden change of front? This matter later brought a serious argument between myself and Ifeajuna when we were both detained together at the Uyo Prison. That was in early April 1966, a few weeks after he had been repatriated to Nigeria. This argument became so serious that both of us exchanged blows and it was Dr Mbanugo, then a political detainee in the same prison, who separated us. After the fight, we became friends again."
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Engr Ikechukwu Mbanugo Ph.D (Nnanyelugo) commented on the above statement in Ademoyega's book and added:
Ps: {He did recount this event to us during the civil war when we took refuge at Mba-Ukwu from encroaching war hostilities at Onitsha-Obosi sector, at Mr Odums residence, and this was on one occasion when he spent the late evening playing the game of draft with his in-law Mr Odum, and won the game to everyone's astonishment. During this game, he told us how he had made peace between Ademoyega and Ifeajuna, when he spent time together in them as a political detainee at Uyo prison for a 6 month duration, and that, while they languished in Uyo prison for no just cause, he on several occasions played the game of draft with Ademoyega and Ifeajuna to calming their troubled spirits. It is also interesting to note that when he was released from the 6 month detention at Uyo prison, he wore thick beards and was looking quite dignified when I got home from college that evening and was surprised to see him, surrounded by his close friends and well-wishers at our St. Thomas' Lodge family residence. The second time I saw him wearing beards was when he dropped by at my University of Lagos Hostel for a brief visit, a month after my late Mom of blessed memory was laid to rest, which was also exactly two months before my final degree exams for my B.Sc.(hons) in mechanical engineering was scheduled to start in April 1975......Ike}
Special thanks to my cousin Chike Nwasike for sharing with the Mbanugo family this excerpt from Ademoyega's book.
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Engr Ikechukwu Mbanugo Ph.D (Nnanyelugo) commented on the above statement in Ademoyega's book and added:
Ps: {He did recount this event to us during the civil war when we took refuge at Mba-Ukwu from encroaching war hostilities at Onitsha-Obosi sector, at Mr Odums residence, and this was on one occasion when he spent the late evening playing the game of draft with his in-law Mr Odum, and won the game to everyone's astonishment. During this game, he told us how he had made peace between Ademoyega and Ifeajuna, when he spent time together in them as a political detainee at Uyo prison for a 6 month duration, and that, while they languished in Uyo prison for no just cause, he on several occasions played the game of draft with Ademoyega and Ifeajuna to calming their troubled spirits. It is also interesting to note that when he was released from the 6 month detention at Uyo prison, he wore thick beards and was looking quite dignified when I got home from college that evening and was surprised to see him, surrounded by his close friends and well-wishers at our St. Thomas' Lodge family residence. The second time I saw him wearing beards was when he dropped by at my University of Lagos Hostel for a brief visit, a month after my late Mom of blessed memory was laid to rest, which was also exactly two months before my final degree exams for my B.Sc.(hons) in mechanical engineering was scheduled to start in April 1975......Ike}
Special thanks to my cousin Chike Nwasike for sharing with the Mbanugo family this excerpt from Ademoyega's book.
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