The burial of slain 42-year-old Major General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi Ironsi.
He was accorded a state funeral with full military honours on January 25, 1967.
The ceremony took place in his home town, Ibeku-Umuahia, in present-day Abia state.
The video shows Ironsi’s parents, wife Mrs. Victoria Nwanyiocha Ironsi (in black, kissing the coffin); Eastern Region Military Governor Lt. Col. Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, Dr. Akanu Ibiam, and other mourners at the graveside, with the coffin slowly lowered to mother earth.
On July 29, 1966 Aguiyi-Ironsi spent the night at the Government House in Ibadan, as part of a nationwide tour. His host, Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi, Military Governor of Western Nigeria, alerted him to a possible mutiny within the army.
Aguiyi-Ironsi desperately tried to contact his Army Chief of Staff, Yakubu Gowon, but he was unreachable.
In the early hours of the morning, the Government House, Ibadan, was surrounded by soldiers led by Theophilus Yakubu (TY) Danjuma, who later arrested Aguiyi-Ironsi and questioned him about his alleged knowledge in the coup, which he knew nothing about. That was his last moment alive.
His body and that of Fajuyi were later discovered in a nearby forest.
Ironsi died a humiliating and painful death.
Ironsi was buried three times. He was murdered by TY Danjuma and buried in a shallow grave after which he was transferred to a cemetery in Ibadan. He was exhumed and buried with state honours upon the insistence of Lt. Col. Emeka Ojukwu on January 25, 1967 in Ibeku-Umuahia.
Emeka Ojukwu and Alex Madiebo strongly advised Ironsi not to embark on this very journey to Ibadan prior to the next day of his assassination. Ironsi refused and said “everything was under control”. He never returned.
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