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 Igbos, but also including a Yoruba major
(Ademoyega Adewale) in a military coup against the Nigerian First
Republic . The Prime Minister , a federal minister, two regional
premiers, along with top Army officers from the north and western
regions of the nation were brutally murdered. The coup failed and
he was arrested after arriving in Lagos on January 18, 1966 in the
company of Lt. Col. Conrad Nwawo. The killing of Brigadier
Ademulegun's pregnant wife by led to the suspicion among Yoruba
and Hausa that the coupist were common criminals rather than
Nationalistic patriots. Brigadier Ademulegun was a Yoruba officer.


The premier of the Northern region was killed, The premier of the
West was killed, but the premier of the Eastern region where most of
the plotters were from was forgotten. On the Federal level the Prime
Minister was killed, the Finance Minister the number 3 man was
killed but the number 2 man who "coincidentally" happened to be
from the same region as the plotters "escaped the killing".


The kid glove with which the new leader Ironsi handled the coupist
led to the dissatisfaction of northern officers with Ironsi's
reluctance to courts-martial the coup plotters led to the counter-
coup of July 29, 1966 which was led mainly by a group of junior
Hausa-Fulani officers. Initially detained at Kirikiri maximum
security prison but then transferred to the East, Nzeogwu and other
January 15 mutiny 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 .


http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chukwuma_Kaduna_Nzeogwu

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 calibre 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. In order to
speed up the national reconciliation effort, orders were given by
Major General Yakubu Gowon for him to be buried with full military
honours 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.