For Nigerians, today is not like any other day as it’s a day set aside to reflect and remember Military men and women who died in the line of duty.
Every year on the 15th of January, Nigerians with a sober reflection celebrate the Armed Forces Remembrance Day. On days like this, men and women who displayed heroic feats while serving the country. Government officials and their loved ones lay wreath at their final resting place to honor them.
We at The New Diplomat cherish history which is why we dug deep into past materials to bring you this interview granted by Dr. Dere Awosika, one of the daughters of the Minister of Finance, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, who was killed during the January 15th 1966 coup.
In an earlier interview Published by Punch newspaper, Dere Awosika, a daughter of the late Okotie-Ebon reveals the real reasons why her father was killed by the coup plotters.
According to Awosika, who is a retired federal permanent secretary and chairman of Access bank, her father was in Sapele to celebrate Christmas with family members as it was her father’s custom to go to Sapele, Delta state every year to celebrate the festive season. She explained that due to the rising tension in South West over an election, her father, Okotie-Eboh was called back on January 10, 1966 to Lagos which was then the Capital of Nigeria by the Prime Minister, late sir Tafawa Balewa. This was the last time she saw her father.
“On January 15, my birthday, he called at about 12:03am to say happy birthday to me. I had not celebrated my birthday for a couple of years, and he told me he had asked my stepmother to organise a big birthday party for me and assured me that I would enjoy the day.
“There was music and everywhere was lively. Suddenly, a helicopter landed in our compound. As typical of children, on sighting a helicopter, children started running around, not knowing they came with the news that my father could not be found.
“The place went into a frenzy and some people were crying. They later told us they could not find my father. They said some soldiers whisked him away. I saw my stepmother driving out in company with some people, apparently to go and ensure that his mother didn’t hear about it. She lived in Orogun which is a bit far from Sapele.
“Anyway, we continued our party, and the image of him many people had was that he was a strong man. We felt he had something he used to vanish or disappear if he wanted, and so we felt that was what could have happened, and so we continued the party until it became very real to us around 3pm that it was not a joke.
“The party stopped, and our compound was filled with people, such that there was no space anywhere. In the evening, we began to cry, because we began to feel the reality of what was going on. It was a strange thing.” the interview read in part.
She revealed the real reason why her father was not spared by the coup plotters: “He was actually the only minister that was killed. That was the strange thing. Other people killed were heads of government. Tafawa Balewa was the head of government, Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir, Ahmadu Bello, was the head of the NPC, Akintola was head of his party but my dad was the only minister singled out. That letter requesting for the declaration of the state of emergency could have leaked, because when you write a letter and it’s acknowledged or acted upon elsewhere, it could leak. That could be a reason. But I think the other reason was that he was so internationally respected that he could have called for help from outside the country to stall the coup. That, I think, was a strong possibility. He had a strong personality. So, if they had spared him, he could have called for reinforcement from outside the country. There is a documentary that the British government did on Nigeria at 100. They talked about him as being groomed as the next Prime Minister. So, that could have leaked as well. It was shown on BBC recently. Maybe those people saw it coming and they got rid of him, thinking if the coup was stalled, they could install him as the PM. They said they believed him as the PM who could make a difference that Nigeria never had.”
