When Ifeajuna and his fellow coup plotters struck in Lagos early on January 15, 1966, Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon, who was 31 years old and a bachelor when he was appointed Head of State, had an Igbo girlfriend who was even sleeping with him. However, Gowon said that his anti-Igbo sentiment made him question whether he could trust his Igbo lover, Edith Ike, following the July 1966 assassination of Aguiyi-Ironsi and the Northerners’ subsequent systematic and indiscriminate executions of Igbo troops and civilians.
The relationship between Gowon and Edith did not last through the crisis, and on April 19, 1972, the 34-year-old Head of State wed Victoria Zakari, who is seen in the image with Gowon, their daughter Saratu, and their son Ibrahim.
In Abuja, the couple commemorated their 55th wedding anniversary.
In addition, Edith Ike later sued Gowon for paternity, claiming that Gowon was the father of her son, Musa, who was born a year before Gowon’s wedding. The case even made it all the way to the Nigerian Supreme Court. Although she prevailed in the lawsuit, the former head of state refused to change his mind until 2016, when a DNA test revealed that Musa was, in fact, Gowon’s son. Musa Jack Ngodadi Gowon, then 47 years and recently pardoned by President Barack Obama after spending nearly 23 years in a U.S. prison for a drug-related offense, was only then accepted as the retired general’s son.
Unfortunately, while her son was still incarcerated in 2003, Edith Ike passed away from breast cancer.
