By James Eke
It is sixty years since one of the finest early military officers produced by Nigeria, Brigadier Samuel Adesujo Ademulegun was killed with his wife, Latifat in the first coup détat in Nigeria.
Read Also: 60 Years After: Remembering the bloody coup that changed Nigeria forever
Sixty years is a long time by any calculations. However, the circumstances of Brigadier Ademulegun’s killing makes his death a national sacrifice that should always be remembered for its lesson in patriotism and professionalism for soldiers. To choose to die in defence of one’s country especially when one had the opportunity to compromise national security and preserve his life is a statement in patriotism worthy of celebration.
Ademulegun died for what he believed to be the right thing for the country. The country was engulfed in crisis following the calamity that descended on Nigeria on the night Ademulegun and his wife were murdered. But how has Nigeria celebrated the death of this worthy soldier to make the point to all soldiers, especially the young ones, that sacrificing one’s life for the country is the ultimate statement in patriotism?
The story of how Brigadier Ademulegun was killed alongside his wife has been told in various reports over time. How a brave soldier resisted undermining the country and paid with his life is a good story for many to tell. But it is also a story of how a young family was destroyed. It is a personal story of tragedy, especially for the surviving members of the family who were very young when the incident happened and recollect it as a nightmare.
Many Nigerians who are old enough to remember the incident in Kaduna on January 15, 1966 still remember that the incident and those of other killings that fateful day, killed innocence in Nigeria. The country has been paying the price since then. However, the country has not done all that is needed to do to put the incident behind those directly concerned.
The tragedy of January 15, 1966 still lingers on many fronts, especially for the family involved. The existence and the future of some individuals, families and groups that were suddenly torn apart by the disaster they neither foresaw nor could do much about is still entangled in those horrible killings. For these affected persons and families, the horrors and pain of January 15, 1966 will never go aways.
The family of Brigadier Samuel Adesujo Ademulegun, the Brigade Commander of the 1st Brigade of the Nigerian Army Kaduna, as at that time, is one such family that has found itself condemned to a life of pain that will not go away. Ironically, the life of the family until January 15, 1966, had seemed bright, with good prospects, under the family leadership of the respected soldier who was highly regarded in the military circles and beyond. The peaceful family life and good prospects for the family of Brigadier Sam Ademulegun suddenly shattered in one midnight. January 15,1966.
On that eventful day in 1966, having retired to bed after the day’s activities, Brigadier Ademulegun was recoiling on the bed with his wife, Latifat, who was eight months pregnant, oblivious of what was unfolding across the city of Kaduna and indeed in some other locations across the country. The home of the Ademuleguns in the reserved area of Kaduna was not only an upper-class environment, their residence was guarded by military personnel.
When therefore, a team of young officers, junior to the Brigade Commander, stormed his bedroom, led by Major Timothy Onwuatuegwu who was a friend and frequent visitor to the Ademuleguns, Sam Ademulegun reportedly asked an impulsive question, although it would have dawned on him that there was trouble. He was said to have asked Major Onwuatuegwu, ”Tim, how did you find yourself in my bedroom and what the devil do you think you are doing?”
As at that moment, the coup of January 15, 1966 was on, and what Major Onwuatuegwu and his team wanted was for Brigadier Ademulegun to hand over the keys of the armoury to them, to further their coup enterprise. The demand was, obviously, not a request the hard-core professional soldier in Sam Ademulegun would grant.
Registered as officer number 3 in the Nigerian Army, following closely after Wellington Bassey (No.1) and Thomas Aguiyi Ironsi (No.2), Ademulegun’s professionalism and patriotic flavour were solidly etched in him. He was Sandhurst- trained and had served variously in Burma, Congo and Tanganyika among others. He was not about to hand over the keys of the armoury to anybody, not to junior officers.
The attempt by the heavily pregnant Mrs. Latifat Ademulegun to soften the situation by planting herself between her husband and his friend, Major Tim Onwuatuegwu, did not achieve the result she expected. It ended fatally. Mrs. Ademulegun was fatally shot. Her husband, refusing to release the armour keys was instantly killed too, both in their bedroom. He was barely 42 years old, and his wife 38 years old.
The horror played out in the presence of their six-year-old daughter, Solape, even as a younger child, four-year-old Adegoke also witnessed, both horrified by the bursts of guns, but could not have understood what had happened. The oldest of the children, 13-year-old Bankole who heard some noise and tried to come out to see what the commotion towards his parents’ bedroom was all about, rushed back on seeing soldiers everywhere at that unholy hour.
The life of the six offspring of Brigadier Ademulegun instantly changed forever on the night of January 15 1966. After the bodies of their parents were loaded into a military vehicle and taken away in the morning after they were killed, the children never saw their parents again and never knew where they ended up.
While the event of January 15 1966 shattered whatever remained of the peace and innocence of Nigeria, six years after it won political independence, the events also threw the Ademulegun children into a life of instability and uncertainty. They commenced a long journey of being harboured and catered for by one relation and friend of their parents after another.
Of the six offspring of Brigadier Sam Ademulegun, three are no more, including Francis Bamidele, his first son that joined the military and rose to the rank of Group Captain in the Nigerian Airforce, as well as Bankole and Adekunle. That leaves Gbenga, Solape Ademulegun-Agbi, the only female and Adegoke.
Sixty long and tortuous years later, the Ademulegun children have, by God’s grace and the help of their parents’ friends, moved on in life, respectively establishing themselves in their respective fields of endeavour. But the pain will not go away. For the Ademulegun children, Nigeria’s attitude to her heroes remains a source of bewilderment.
Nigeria has dedicated January 15th every year as Armed Forces Remembrance Day. That is fair and good. Over the years, beyond January 15th, the Ademuleguns have continued to make a plea that the Nigerian state has curiously paid little heed to. Where was Brigadier Samuel Ademulegun, former Brigade Commander of 1st Brigade of Nigerian Army in Kaduna, buried, alongside his wife, Latifat, both killed on January 15 1966?
In the 60th anniversary of the killing of Brigadier Samuel Ademulegun and his wife for his act of sacrifice to country at a very critical juncture, the time could not be more appropriate to honour the Brigadier with a proper burial. This is the plea of his children to President Bola Tinubu, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. This is the plea to the military high command. This is a plea to the nation. Several private efforts have been made over the years to get the ears and attention of the government, but to no avail.
Brigadier Ademulegun laid down his life for his country. Everything that is known and testified about him indicate that he could not have contemplated doing any other thing than what he did in securing the interest of the country. A less patriotic person would have considered his life and that of his eight-month pregnant wife with him at the juncture he sacrificed their lives.
Ademulegun deserves to be properly honoured and buried. His burial place needs to be properly identified and where necessary, he should be formally reburied with the dignity he deserves. Doing that will transmit encouraging message to servicemen still on duty and the future generations, that sacrifice to country will never be treated with disdain and negligence.
The pain and nightmare of the killing of Brigadier Samuel Ademulegun and his pregnant wife will never depart from their children who watched them gunned down and left in the pool of their blood. What they ask for now is a closure of sorts at the 60th anniversary of the tragedy. While those toddlers of those days are still alive, they want to know where their parents were buried. Nigeria owes her heroes such a simple honour.
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