Today, January 15 is iconic in Nigeria's history, as it was not only the day of the country's first military coup which took place in 1966 but also the date the ensuing Nigerian Civil War ended in 1970. Following the 1966 coup, which was seen as an Igbo coup because most northern leaders were killed in it, there was a subsequent northern counter coup in July, which led to pogroms against Igbos and ultimately the civil war.
Sir Ahmadu Bello, along with prime minister Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa were killed on January 15 1966, as was the premier of the Western Region Ladoke Akintola. Several senior army officers were also shot including Brigadier Zakariya Maimalari, Col Kur Mohammed, Col Ralph Shodeinde, Lt Col Joseph Pam, Lt Col Arthur Unegbe and Lt Col Abogo Lagerma.
Opening up for the first time in 50 years, Alhaji Sarkin-Mota, recounted how he tried, fruitlessly, to save Sir Ahmadu Bello on that fateful night. Alhaji Sarkin-Mota, 89, recalls that on January 15, 1966, at about 1.30am after the soldiers had gained access to the his residence, one of them demanded to know from him the whereabouts of his boss, a question he feigned not have understood since it was asked in English.
Alhaji Sarkin-Mota said: “I pretended that I didn’t know what he was talking about. Then he asked me in Hausa, ‘Ina Sardauna and I told him that since we returned from playing game, I had not set my eyes on the premier.”
He stated that, at that point, he was cleaning up the cars when he heard the Sardauna calling out to his barber to hurry up with what he was doing because he wanted to shave. Alhaji Sarkin-Mota said that soon after, the Sardauna turned to him and said he overheard him talking to some people.
“I told him yes, that it was the security guards or, rather, the policemen guarding the house. Alas! I was wrong in my calculation. I didn’t know they were soldiers who had succeeded in getting access to the State House and positioned themselves in strategic places.
"They were three of them, and one of them told me that they were giving me five minutes to tell them where the Premier was or they would kill me. I told them they could go ahead and kill me because I was ready to die, so they left me and started searching for him all over the house but they did not see him, Alhaji Sarkin-Mota added.
He pointed out that then they went to his wives’ quarters and chased them out of their rooms and then began shooting sporadically. One of the Sardauna's wives gave him a wrapper to disguise himself and quickly run away but he refused, telling her that what they were looking for is here.
“Without wasting time, they shot and killed him and his wife. This was at about 4am on January 15, 1966 and immediately it happened, I fainted and it took one month before I could regain my memory,” Alhaji Sarkin-Mota narrated.
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