Adekunle Fajuyi
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Francis Adekunle Fajuyi, (June 26, 1926 - July 29, 1966), was the first military governor of the defunct Western Region, Nigeria. Originally a clerk, the late Lt. Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi of Ado Ekiti joined the Army in 1943 as a Non Commissioned Officer, and he was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1951 for helping to contain a mutiny in his unit over food rations. He was trained at the now defunct Eaton Hall OCS in the UK from July 1954 until November 1954 when he was short service commissioned Lieutenant, backdated to March 1952. In 1961, as the ‘C’ Company Commander with the 4QONR under Lt. Col. Price, Major Fajuyi was awarded the M.C. for actions in North Katanga and extricating his unit from an ambush. On completion of Congo operations Fajuyi became the first indigenous Battalion Commander of the 1st battalion in Enugu, a position he held until just before the first coup of January 1966 when he was posted to Abeokuta as Garrison Commander. When Major General Ironsi emerged as the new C-in-C on January 17 1966, he appointed Fajuyi the first military governor of the Western Region.
He was assassinated by the revenge seeking counter-coupists on July 29, 1966 at Ibadan, along with General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, the Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; who had arrived Ibadan on July 28, 1966 to address a conference of natural rulers of Western Nigeria. By dusk, he was through with the assignment and was prepared to head back to Lagos, but his guest, Lt. Colonel Fajuyi, impressed on him to spend the night at the Government House, Ibadan.
The bloody overthrow of the civilian regime of Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa’s government had taken place six months earlier in which the Prime Minister and other top government functionaries especially of northern Nigerian extraction were killed. Ironically, Aguiyi-Ironsi who did not participate in the violent bloodletting inherited the pieces of a shattered Republic by virtue of his seniority in the armed forces. Yet, he was a victim of the counter-coup that claimed his life alongside his courageous host, Fajuyi.
