Olusegun Osoba, a former governor of Ogun State, has recounted how he discovered the bodies of Nigeria’s first Prime Minister, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa and the then Finance Minister, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh in the bush after the January 15, 1966 coup.
Osoba, in a Vanguard interview, first published in 2010, narrated how he was informed of the bodies of the two Nigerian leaders in the bush, somewhere in Ota, along Lagos-Abeokuta road, Ogun State on January 21, 1966.
The journalist-turned-politician, who was then a reporter with Daily Times, laid down controversy brewing over the possibility of Balewa being shot and killed by coupists before his body dumped inside the bush with that of Okotie Eboh.
According to him, the British intelligence that was in charge of Nigeria’s security then fell flat and had no clue whatsoever about the situation in Nigeria.
He narrated that the upheaval happened at a time Nigeria hosted a Commonwealth conference, with many heads of state including Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand among others in attendance, wondering how a well-grounded and well-informed security network would allow world leaders to assemble in Nigeria for the conference few hours to a major political upheaval and a first military intervention in the history of the country.
While disputing Nigerians who got their version of the history on Balewa being shot from the British archives, Osoba insisted that such archives couldn’t have been factual, “so you cannot rely on such or use a failed report of failed people and intelligence as history; that is my argument.”
He said, “Would any serious government have risked the head of their government in a country where the military was about to strike? Supposing he was trapped in the crossfire just like the then head of government of Cyprus was caught up in the coup because he was in Enugu on a tour of the country and a guest of Michael Okpara when the coup took place?”
Giving his account as then Daily Times reporter, Osoba narrated that he got the call about the bodies around evening and the first decision he made was to get there before dusk.
“At that time, there was no SSS. What you had was called E-Branch of the Nigeria Police Intelligence Department. What you had was E-Branch and SCID. E- Branch was like today’s SSS. And someone from there phoned me and for a reporter like me who had phone, my colleagues were making jest of me that it was elitist and luxury.
“It was already 6 p.m. that day when I heard of the news and my immediate reaction was to get there before dark; so the question of looking for a photographer didn’t arise and, as Chief E. A. Oshunneye, another eye witness, his wife is still around, she can easily corroborate what I am saying, her husband would have recounted the story to her; he was coming from Abeokuta and he told me that somewhere after leaving Abeokuta, on their way to Ifo, that he stopped and that they were all peeping from the window of their vehicle to look at the place where the bodies were kept.
“And so, that was how I took my Vespa which was like having a car then. There was no traffic because there were fewer vehicles on the road and I raced there to see the body. I spoke with a lot of the villagers on the story. If people are enterprising enough, I think they should go to Ilogbo or Iyana-Ilogbo, they would find people who saw the bodies,” the former governor told Vanguard.
Continuing, Osoba insisted that he didn’t see any sign of gunshots on either Okotie-Eboh or Balewa, adding that Okotie-Eboh’s body had decomposed.
“The Okotie-Eboh body had decomposed and I didn’t even see any sign of gunshots on his body. His head was mangled; I suspect he was maltreated and manhandled. I am still suspicious of the involvement of then-government in the whole saga.
“How Tafawa Balewa died is not something I want to talk about. M.T. Mbu didn’t say he was the source of the manner of Tafawa Balewa’s death; he said he was told by Okigbo who was told by Ifeajuna. His own story is for empathy. He didn’t make a claim of it. He just made a statement as a minister that the man died of asthma based on what he was told. The death of Tafawa Balewa may have been influenced by elements in government who wanted to cover certain things up and now had to put his body on the same spot with Okotie-Eboh so that the story would be that the coupists put the two bodies there. I have reason to believe that there are some games played by some people in government who had a hand in it,” he added.
Explaining further, Osoba stated that he could not agree with claims that Balewa died of asthma as he was not a medical doctor, adding that he believes Nigeria’s first and last Prime Minister was not shot because of the respect he commanded not only in Nigeria but internationally. The former governor charged researchers to dig deeper into Nigerian newspaper archives for facts about the incident, insisting that nobody inside or outside the government has denied what he wrote about his experience in the Sunday Times of 23 January 1966.
“Tafawa Balewa was highly respected by everybody whether those in government or outside. He was a gentleman, he didn’t only have an image of a gentleman nationally; internationally, he was also respected. When the OAU was being formed which broke into factions then, the Casablanca group, the Nkrumah group and all kinds of groups, he was involved in bringing all the African countries together and, out of the respect he had worldwide for sorting out the issue of East and Southern Rhodesia then which had gone out of the British government, that Commonwealth conference hosted by Nigeria was the first to be held outside UK, it showed the kind of respect and affection for Tafawa Balewa. So the coupists might not want to manhandle him. And that this is why I think there was a foul play.
“In the first place, there was a coup of some majors which became very bloody in some parts of the country. It was a funny situation there was a coup where Ironsi survived. One, attempt must have been made to kill him and the federal cabinet decided to hand over to the military or the coupists and Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was on a tour of the Carribean; so the acting president of the Senate joined to formally hand over government to Ironsi. That was the situation and after that, all the heavyweights in politics took flight. They ran away. Therefore the issue that they called everybody to come and identify Tafawa Balewa’s body didn’t arise because I still have my newspaper cuttings … even politicians from Western Region ran to Cotonou, Benin Republic.
“And I went to interview them and they said they would not return to Nigeria until the military handed over power. If such politicians ran away, what makes you think the other ministers would be around when they had already handed over power to the military and particularly at a time Major Nzeogwu was making serious statements on the radio that any major offence became death sentence? There was fear in everybody. My suspicion is that after the rein of government had been handed over to Ironsi, if Tafawa Balewa had been alive then, the government of the day would have wasted him because if Tafawa Balewa were alive, the handing over by the ministers would have been null and void because he was the head of government. So, writers and researchers still need a lot of work to do,” Osoba added.
(Sunday Vanguard)
