By Tony Egbulefu

With a narrative from Dr Ishaku Chollom Pam FRCP, Consultant Physician, Tony Egbulefu captures the ghastly details of the conversations that preceded the cold-blooded execution of Lt Col James Pam, the Adjutant-general of the Nigerian Army in the hands of the January 15, 1966 mutineers.

As the guns cracked in the early hours of January 15, 1966 from the officers and men loyal to some mutineering middle rank officers of the Nigerian Army, led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, 11 prominent Nigerian politicians and some senior army officers met their fatal end in its trail.

Gone with the coup that spanned across the cities of Lagos (then federal capital ), Kaduna, (capital of Northern Region), and Ibadan, (capital of the Western Region) were the Nigerian Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, Premier of the Northern Region, Chief Samuel Akintola, Premier of the Western Region, and minister of finance, Festus Okotie Eboh.

Ostensibly targeted at the ruling political class, whom the mutineers accused of bad governance and systemic destruction of the bonds of country’s unity, the coup which had other protagonist as Maj Timothy Onwuatuegwu, Maj Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Maj Don Okafor, Maj Ademola Ademoyega, Maj Chris Anuforo, Maj Humphrey Chukwuka and Capt Emmanuel Nwobosi, brought the country’s nascent democracy, which was just six years old to a screeching halt. Major-general JTU Aguiyi Ironsi, Commander of the Nigerian Army, GOC, who became the prime beneficiary of the coup as the Head of State sought to consolidate his hold on power, and on the country by enacting a decree that made the country turn to a unitary system of government. Though the Nigeria is still nominally designated as a federal entity, Ironsi’s unitary structure in effect, has been the operational model till date.

Army officers the coup claimed include Lt Col Abogo Largema, (the Commanding Officer of the 4th Battalion, Ibadan), Brig Zakariya Maimalari, (Commander 2nd Brigade, Lagos), Brig Ademulegun, Col Kur Mohammed, (Chief of Army Staff), Lt Col Arthur Unegbe (Quarter Master General Nigerian Army, and the only officer of Igbo extraction to be executed by the coup plotters) and Lt Col James Pam.

Lt Col Pam, however, stood out as the officer, who broke the news of the coup to Ironsi, the would-be Head of State.

In the dead of the night, Pam rather than being more concerned about the safety of his life, braced the odds and tipped off Ironsi, the army GOC on telephone about the mutiny. Shortly after ending the call to Ironsi, Pam’s apartment was invaded and he was abducted and later shot dead by Maj Anuforo.

It was on a grim Saturday night, about 2am, January 15, 1966. Pam, Adjutant-general of the Nigerian Army, his wife Elizabeth and all other members of his family have been asleep for several hours in their Nigerian Army residence at 8 Ikoyi Crescent, Ikoyi, Lagos, when they awoke to a start to behold the sight of soldiers, crouching decidedly towards their house. By a sense of duty, concern and loyalty, he picked up the telephone in the bedroom and called the Nigerian Army GOC, Major General Aguiyi Ironsi.

The following narrative is captured by Dr Ishaku Chollom Pam FRCP, Consultant Physician between Pam and Ironsi:

Lt. Col JY Pam: “Sir, there have been gunshots around my house and there is a party of armed soldiers making its way towards my home.”

GOC: sounding alert “Ummm. Don’t worry. I will do everything I can to help. Good bye.” Lt Col Pam dialled a second number. This time to Brigadier Maimalari, and repeated what he has just relayed to the GOC.

Back at 8 Ikoyi Crescent, the fully-armed soldiers were deployed with deadly efficiency at the gate, at the front entrance, to the kitchen door and to the Boys Quarters. Those approaching the kitchen chose to make their entrance by shooting through the door. A quick run up the stairs and the soldiers took over the bedrooms. By thisBy this time Elizabeth was no longer in doubt that something has badly gone wrong. As she ran to the children’s rooms in her distress and confusion, she screamed for her oldest child and daughter who was eight years old. “Kaneng ! Kaneng! Help me! Help me!” she called out.

The invading soldiers had come face-to-face with her husband, Lt Col Pam, led by a man very familiar to him, Major (HC) Humphrey Chukwuka, his second-in-command, and Deputy Adjutant General (DAG)1 whom Major Benjamin Adekunle who was DAG 2 had earlier warned him to beware of and Major Anuforo.

The rest of the party comprised 2nd Lt G. Onyefuru, Sergeants NN Ugongene, H.Okibe, B.Anyanwu, L.Egbukichi and P.Iwueke

Major Humphrey Chukwuka (HC): “Sir, we have come to take you with us.”

JY: “Why? What is the meaning of this?”

HC: “Sir, please come with us.”

JY: “Ok. Allow me to dress”

Lt. Col JY Pam at this point was joined by his heart-broken wife, Elizabeth as he retreated into the bedroom and changed swiftly into a pair of trousers, a vest and shirt and put on his watch. He returned to the waiting soldiers as Elizabeth pleaded with Major Chukwuka who was well known to her to spare her husband’s life.

Elizabeth pleads: “please don’t kill him, please don’t kill my husband”

HC: “No. We won’t Madam. Don’t worry. I will bring him back to you.”

Major Chukwuka, who had rather become impatient began to march Lt Col Pam out of his home but not without first advising him to put on a coat because it was the harmattan season and was cold outside.

As Pam was led out, Kaneng, his daughter, aware of the present danger, ran to her father and hugged him. Col Pam promptly turned to Elizabeth his wife and said in Hausa: “Liz, ki lura da yara,” which means “Liz, look after the children.”

These as it were, became the last words that she will hear her husband speak. And that was also the last glimpse he would have of his family that comprised Jummai, six years; Yusufu, four years; identical twins Ishaku and Ishaya, one year nine months and Ibrahim (Gambo), four months and two weeks.

The abduction party left the house, leaving behind the wailings from the Pam family. On the journey of a few kilometres from Ikoyi Crescent to the Federal Guards Officers Mess Ikoyi, Lt Col Pam sat in the back of a camouflage green Nigerian Army Land Rover under armed guard. They remain in the premises of the Officers Mess for less than an hour when Major Christian Anuforo arrived of from Apapa, where he had gone to execute Colonel Kur Mohammed. Upon discovery that it was Lt Col JY Pam who was under guard, Major Chukwuka expressed surprise that Lt Col Pam has not been eliminated.

Major Anuforo who had taken charge at the Federal Guards’ Officers Mess, ordered the driver to take the party to Ikoyi Golf Course. At a convenient point he ordered the driver to stop and for Lt Col Pam to disembark. Though not in operational command of troops, Col Pam was the most senior administrative officer in the Nigerian Army, in charge of institutional support and personnel; and for reasons best known to them, Major Anuforo and his co-conspirators had ordained that he was to die.

Major Christian Anuforo (CA): “You are to be shot Sir.”

JY: “Chris why?”

CA: “That is our decision”

JY: “I have a young family of six. This makes no sense.”

CA: “I have no choice. I am simply obeying orders.”

JY: “Allow me to say my prayers.”

CA: “Please do.”

Dawn has not broken, and Lt Col Pam, 32, knelt on the soft, cold grass. His last thoughts were obviously for his devoted wife Elizabeth and their children. “Lord save them. Lord bless them and Lord keep them.”

Anuforo’s gun cracked, two bullets flew out in the first volley, hitting his chest and jaw. Pam crumbled to the ground and then eleven more bullets pierced through from his the back. And life was over.

Major General Ironsi became the Head of State. Bloody retaliation followed in July same year, and over a million lives were lost in the orgy of violence that eruptedFifty-one years on and the country is still counting the cost,” notes Dr Pam.

Col Pam was part of the soldiers that quelled the Tiv Riots. Tasked with the duty of reorganising and training the fledgling Tanganyika (later Tanzanian) Army, he accomplished it with an outstanding efficiency, and returned with the gift of a leopard skin and shield from a grateful President Julius Nyerere. He was awarded MFR (Member of the Federal Republic of Nigeria) for his industry and professionalism.

http://leadership.ng/news/567209/january-15-1966-coup-conversation-between-lt-col-pam-and-his-murderers

The person that narrated this tale was he there? Is this not that type of tale that Obasanjo and Co humour us with?

All these stories self.why dem no allow history for schools..make we for the know..

Na to the give us updated version... wey suit there 95/5 propaganda.

What is these post meant to achieve, if not tribal bashing and cooked revisionists.

Let the e fight begins....

seunmsg:

The invading soldiers had come face-to-face with her husband, Lt Col Pam, led by a man very familiar to him, Major (HC) Humphrey Chukwuka, his second-in-command, and Deputy Adjutant General (DAG)1 whom Major Benjamin Adekunle who was DAG 2 had earlier warned him to beware of and Major Anuforo.


This is the height of treachery. Shame on Major Chukwuka and other treacherous murderers who betrayed the trust of their seniors during the needless Ibo coup of January, 1966.

What was Major Ademola doing there? It seems he was cooking for the ibo coup plotters while Oyewole was fetching firewood and clapping for the speech being made by the coup plotters



Since you call it Igbo coup. Turning history on its head.



I thought old age begets wisdom but you are no different from those i watch in a circus

His son (one of the twins)

DIKEnaWAR:
The person that narrated this tale was he there? Is this not that type of tale that Obasanjo and Co humour us with?

waledeji:
Truly, Ibos are the root cause of Nigeria problems

You are your own problem, with this your leprosous and unintelligent way of reasoning. What good has come out of you to change your immediate environment.

Oga seun, sir Lalasticlala, and other mods, I believe this is deserving of front page.

Pain was done!!

Gain was None!!

One day bygone will be bygone!!

NCP:
And they think they can Rule Again. I prefer an Ibibio or Ijaw over this Bloodletting tribe.

Ironsi was fully aware of the Coup going by the conversation between Pam and Ironsi.

Oga all ibos were part of the coup, it was grand conspiracy by them against other tribes.zik,okpara,ironsi,nzeogwu were the same.Can you tell me the reason why senate president Nwafor refused to hand over power to minister selected by cabinets after the corpse of tafawa belawa was discovered rather he handed over power to his co ibgo Gen.ironsi,as narrated by akinjede Richard.

Fedayeen02:
Allow them to go then.


Hypocrites

nobody is holding you down.why didnt you guys leave during johnathan's era.

It is good to always remind ourselves from time to time of the labors of our heroes past.

The power of forgiveness is far higher and the sins of the fathers should not be visited on the sins of the children so let us move forward.

And this is how those young careless drunken and hate filled young officers mostly of Igbo extraction embedded every iota of distrust that today remain between tribes in Nigeria ..so sad

If I talk now, MODs will ban me again.

Ojukwus and Osus affinity for shedding of blood is well documented.

Why are people bashing Igbo tribe?

Fine, what the officers of Igbo extraction and their collaborators did was evil and act of wickedness, it is still not enough to blame an entire tribe...

On a serious note, those officers that perpetrated the coup of Jan 1966 are curse to humanity.

Whoever that defends them is also a curse

opey25:
nobody is holding you down.why didnt you guys leave during johnathan's era.

you dey mind them?.....like someone is holding a gun to their head to stay...

funny thing, they call it a Zoo. yet they want to remain in d Zoo, and benefit from it...they say as Foreigners...ah ah ah ah

ask them to all leave today, they will start crying...

bigtt76:
His son (one of the twins)

Followed him to where he was shot?

A bunch of perhaps misguided military boys took the law into their own hands and decided to terminate the lives of their colleagues, truth is I would never know what got into Nzeogwu l's head to mastermind that infamous January coup...most of us weren't born then so we can only read about it from accounts of others who saw it all (and trust the stories will be riddled with half truths and inconsistent lies), so we can bash an entire ethnic group for the January coup, but it will border on sheer idiocy and hypocrisy to think the subsequent coups that happened in Nigeria weren't as bloody and merciless in its executions as the one in 1966, and that surely didn't justify the massacres of defenceless and innocent Igbo civilians all over Nigeria...but hey the great Igbo race paid the price for the misadventures of some soldiers, we have licked out wounds and moved on, today Nigeria remains a cess spit of decadence and I'm pretty sure Igbos aren't to blame for it this time.

All I just pray for right now is that my people leave Nigeria and find the much needed peace and serenity that we so need, the rest can kill each other there...it must happen in my lifetime,even if blood will have to be she'd again, I will proudly sacrifice mine for my children to enjoy their peace.

project8:
Wicked tribe always playing the victims card....
From this little flashback of history one can comfortably say they are the genesis of tribal hatred and indeed the blood of betrayal is running in them.
Some people are naturally wicked no wonder they keep disgracing us on international levels in drugs related cases. i wonder if they can manage themselves if given their country because its goin to be a crime filled country where ritualists are celebrated, where armedroberry make the law,where bribery is normal and i bet u drugs wil be a legitimate business there.
The truth is Nigeria is doin them a favour by accomodating them.if they truly wana leave Gej's era was a perfect opportunity bt becos hes of corruption and the new sherrif doesnt buy to their blackmail they spring up war of division
A simple case of greed and betrayal played btw chief ezeribe who claim to pick The now much celebrated criminal and terrorist Nnamdi kalu to be a rasio director bt kalu betrayed him to bcome leader of their well celebrated criminal struggle.
we cant separate them with betrayal cos its them.
May God bring enemies of Nigeria and it people to their knees

Aside from the thrash you just wrote, learn to punctuate your sentences cause all I see here is run-on's...I wouldn't call you a dunce in spite of yourself of course, reeking of sheer ignorance says much about you already.

Olaolufred:


Any office where you have an ibo man as deputy,
Know that you have a potential judas iscariot.

This is really funny even funnier is that the Ibo themselves lost More trying to be on their own country.

Today Igbos are treasurers ,vice presidents of world Bank and other multinational corporations.

Igbos have produced some of the Best brains in the world ,NASA , an Igbo was named as the most power black man in Britain, and it is only in a country that isn't barely being held together by a military rather than national patriotism,a country whose only achievement is remaining united against internal forces since it got almalgamated that Igbos are treacherous.