The funeral of the devoted Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi, the former military governor of Nigeria’s Western Region, who was abducted and killed in Ibadan by rebel soldiers on July 29, 1966, during the countercoup led by the North, along with the state’s chief of staff, Major-General J.T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi.
Soon after their assassinations, both men were buried, but the subsequent government commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon did not formally recognize their deaths. The arrangement made by Nigeria’s military governors at the Ghanaian resort of Aburi earlier in January 1967 included the reinterment of both soldiers six months after their deaths.
Commodore J.E.A. Wey, the commander of the Nigerian Navy and a member of the Supreme Military Council, Lieutenant-Colonel David Ejoor, the military governor of the Mid-Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the former civilian premier of the Western Region, and Colonel Robert Adeyinka Adebayo, Fajuyi’s successor, are present.
The video concludes with Lt. Colonel Fajuyi receiving a gun salute and being buried in accordance with Roman Catholic customs.
