Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu
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Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, (1937 – 1967) was born in the Northern Region’s capital of Kaduna to Igbo immigrant parents from the Mid-Western Region. He was an infantry and intelligence officer of the Nigerian Army. Such was his family’s affinity to the city of Nzeogwu’s birth that they and his military colleagues called him “Kaduna”. Nzeogwu was a devout Roman Catholic and a teetotaler. His charisma was such that even his detractors were prepared to admit that he was “an incorruptible idealist without ambitions of power”. He attended the fabled military academy at Sandhurst, and was a promising, charismatic and rebellious military officer who eventually became the Chief Instructor at the Nigerian Military Training College in Kaduna. The forerunner of the Nigerian Army Intelligence Corps (NAIC) was the Field Security Section (FSS) of the Royal Nigerian Army, which was established on 1 November 1962 with Captain PG Harrington (BR) as General Staff Officer Grade Two (GSO2 Int). The FSS was essentially a security organization whose functions included vetting of Nigerian Army (NA) personnel, document security and counter intelligence. Major Nzeogwu was the first Nigerian Officer to hold that appointment from November 1962 to 1964.
[edit] 1966 Coup
In the early hours of January 15, 1966, citing a laundry list of complaints against the political class, Nzeogwu led a group of majors mainly from the eastern part of Nigeria, in a military rebellion against the Nigerian First Republic. The Prime Minister, a federal minister, two regional premiers, along with top Army officers were brutally assassinated. The coup failed and he was arrested after arriving in Lagos on January 18, 1966 in the company of Lt. Col. Conrad Nwawo, following his five point agreement with General Aguiyi-Ironsi who eventually became the first military Head of State. Initially detained at Kirikiri maximum security prison but then transferred to the East, he and other January 15mutiny detainees in the East were released from jail by Lt. Col. Emeka Ojukwu at the end of the first quarter of 1967; following demonstrations by students of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
[edit] Biafran War
After Ojukwu's May 30, 1967 Biafra secession declaration, Nzeogwu was released from close observation, and finding himself bored, asked to go into battle, albeit, without the appropriate level of support for an officer of his caliber and rank. On July 29, 1967, Nzeogwu - who had been promoted to the rank of Biafran Lt. Colonel; was trapped in an ambush near Nsukka while conducting a night reconnaissance operation against federal troops of the 21st battalion under Captain Mohammed Inua Wushishi. He was killed in action and his corpse was subsequently identified. Orders were given by Major General Yakubu Gowon for him to be buried with full military honors at the military cemetery in Kaduna, however, by the time the corpse arrived in Kaduna, it had been mutilated by unknown persons and his eyes gouged out. A photograph of Nzeogwu's corpse is available at the National Archives in Kaduna.
