PAN-Igbo organisation the Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC) has called on the federal government to rename the presidential villa currently known as Aso Rock after the former military head of state Major General Johnson Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi.
In January 1966, Major General Aguiyi-Ironsi became Nigeria's first ever military ruler after a coup overthrew the elected government of prime minister Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa. However, Major-General Ironsi was subsequently murdered in a northern counter-coup which took place in July that year.
Today is 50 years to the day Major General Ironsi was killed and the OYC has asked the government to honour his memory by naming the presidential villa after him. OYC president Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, argued that the late Ironsi staked his life for the unity of the country and therefore deserved to be immortalized and given his proper place in the annals of Nigerian history.
He expressed great regret that 50 years after his tragic death, the federal government was yet to immortalise Major General Ironsi. He also enjoined the federal and as well as the various state governments to give attention to the welfare of Major General Ironsi's family to assuage their pains.
Mazi Isiguzoro added: "The federal government should name the nation’s seat of power, Aso Rock after the late head of state in recognition of his invaluable sacrifices for the unity of Nigeria. While the masterminds of the heinous act are still moving around and parading themselves as statesmen, the members of Aguiyi-Ironsi’s family have continued to wallow in pains and poverty.”
Meanwhile, the Aguiyi-Ironsi family is organising a memorial service in Umuahia to mark the 50 years anniversary of the tragic death of their father. According to the matriarch of the family and wife of the late general, Lady Victoria Aguiyi-Ironsi, a church service will hold today at the Mater Dei Catholic Cathedral, Umuahia, which will be followed by a reception at the family home.
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