NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
Olusegun Osoba, a former governor of Ogun State, has recounted how he discovered the bodies of Nigeria’s first Prime Minister, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa and the then Finance Minister, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh in the bush after the January 15, 1966 coup.
Osoba, in a Vanguard interview, first published in 2010, narrated how he was informed of the bodies of the two Nigerian leaders in the bush, somewhere in Ota, along Lagos-Abeokuta road, Ogun State on January 21, 1966.
The journalist-turned-politician, who was then a reporter with Daily Times, laid down controversy brewing over the possibility of Balewa being shot and killed by coupists before his body dumped inside the bush with that of Okotie Eboh.
According to him, the British intelligence that was in charge of Nigeria’s security then fell flat and had no clue whatsoever about the situation in Nigeria.
He narrated that the upheaval happened at a time Nigeria hosted a Commonwealth conference, with many heads of state including Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand among others in attendance, wondering how a well-grounded and well-informed security network would allow world leaders to assemble in Nigeria for the conference few hours to a major political upheaval and a first military intervention in the history of the country.
While disputing Nigerians who got their version of the history on Balewa being shot from the British archives, Osoba insisted that such archives couldn’t have been factual, “so you cannot rely on such or use a failed report of failed people and intelligence as history; that is my argument.”
He said, “Would any serious government have risked the head of their government in a country where the military was about to strike? Supposing he was trapped in the crossfire just like the then head of government of Cyprus was caught up in the coup because he was in Enugu on a tour of the country and a guest of Michael Okpara when the coup took place?”
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