Former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd.), has said the officer he personally appointed to protect his life, Joseph Garba, was among those who orchestrated his removal in the July 1975 coup.
Naijaonpoint reports that Gowon said Garba, who was then Commander of the Federal Guards Unit, had denied any knowledge of a plot against his government days before the coup.
The former Head of State made the revelation in his 859-page autobiography, *My Life of Duty and Allegiance*, obtained by our correspondent at the book launch in Abuja on Tuesday.
Gowon described the coup as the deepest personal betrayal of his public life, saying it was carried out by men he had trusted and elevated.
He said his Chief Security Officer and head of the Special Branch, M.D. Yusuf, had warned him before the Organisation of African Unity summit in Kampala, Uganda, that some officers were plotting to overthrow his government.
According to him, Yusuf identified Garba and Anthony Ochefu, then Provost Marshal of the Nigerian Military Police, as key figures in the alleged plot.
Gowon said the warning placed him in a difficult position because Garba had been appointed to one of the most sensitive positions in his security structure.
He wrote, “As commander of the Federal Guards, which is the elite entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the person of the Head of State, Garba was supposed to have unquestionable loyalty.
“Not only did I intimately know both men, but I had also grown to like and trust them over the years.
“Coincidentally, both were Christians and from my original home state, Benue Plateau.”
Rather than act immediately on Yusuf’s intelligence, Gowon said he confronted Garba directly.
He recalled that Garba strongly denied knowing about any plan to remove him from office.
Gowon wrote, “In quick succession, he vehemently denied awareness of any plan to topple me and swore by heaven and earth to deny the existence and his membership of any group that may have been formed for that purpose.
“But, I made him realise that if, at the end of the day, there was any truth in the rumour of his involvement in any plan against me, he would be answerable to God and his conscience.”
Gowon said his suspicions later increased after Ochefu allegedly refused to return to Lagos.
“His uncharacteristic, yet deliberate act of gross disloyalty made me sense the plot might be true.
“I made a note to revisit the issue on my return from Kampala,” he wrote.
Despite the warning, Gowon said he travelled to Kampala for the 12th Summit of the Organisation of African Unity because he had already committed to attend.
He said he remained uneasy during the trip and directed his aide-de-camp, Mr Walbe, to return to Lagos to monitor developments.
However, according to him, Walbe could not return on time because the co-pilot was reportedly ill.
Gowon said he was seated at the conference on July 29, 1975, when Uganda’s then leader, Idi Amin, showed him a Reuters dispatch announcing that his government had been overthrown.
He wrote, “I did not recognise the garbled name on the Reuters dispatch. Early media reports mentioned a certain ‘Colonel Darwa’ as the officer who made the dawn broadcast of the coup.
“‘Darwa’ certainly sounded and read like a mispronounced or misspelt ‘Garba’. Still, I was not inclined to believe that he, of all people, would betray me.”
Gowon said he initially suspected that Garba might have been coerced or deceived into joining the coup.
“My concern for Garba was based on fears that the planners of the coup may have co-opted him into their scheme against his better judgment.
