Ademulegun’s special daughter, by Emeka Obasi

June 12 is not all about democracy. Before General Ibrahim Babangida and Chief Moshood Abiola, Brigadier Samuel Adesujo Ademulegun celebrated that date as his Entry Point into the officer cadre of the Nigeria Army, in 1949. He was commissioned same day as Gen. Johnson Aguiyi Ironsi.

Ademulegun dotted on his daughter, Solape. At his No. 1 Kashim Ibrahim Road, Kaduna official residence as Commander of 1 Brigade, the girl and her pregnant mother meant the whole world to the senior officer. A new baby was coming.

Mrs Latifat Feyisitan Abike Ademulegun (nee Noble), also known as Sisi Nurse, was eight months pregnant in January 1966. The couple usually slept in the same bedroom with their little ones, Solape, six years old and Goke, four. January 15, was the last night they all slept together.

At about 2 a.m, their privacy was invaded by a well known face, Major Timothy Onwuatuegwu. This was a man the children called uncle but that dark night changed their world for the worse. The intruder orphaned the duo by killing their parents. The baby in the womb did not come into the world.

Thirteen soldiers followed Onwuatuegwu to Ademulegun’s house. They were Yakubu Dungo, Raphael Olatunde, Yakubu Bako, Lawrence Akuma, Joseph Odion, Emmanuel Udo, Henry Valia and Mathew Asanya. The others were, James Aluta, Geoffrey Eberendu, Simon Agi, Felix O. and Muli.

Solape and Goke, saw it all. And they have continued to live with that experience. They have also lost two brothers, subsequently. One of them, Frank, was not deterred by the event of January 15. He joined the Nigeria Air Force with officer number NAF/294.

From their luxury crib in Kaduna, the Ademuleguns found themselves in Mushin, the inner city of Lagos. They knew warmth in the bossom of their parents. When death separated them, hell still visited Solape. Her Lagosian mother, had a bungalow in Lagos. There, lived uncle Bashir and his wife.

If Onwuatuegwu was a pseudo uncle, Bashir was a de facto one. He was of the same parents with Sisi Nurse. On a certain day, Bashir’s wife and her houseboy, Bassey, connived to send Solape off Planet Earth. Her food was poisoned while Goke and other children played outside the house.

Solape so frustrated the food meant for her requiem that Bassey devised other means to torture the poor girl. He was bent on raping her believing that she would not be alive to tell the story. The beast failed, the girl survived and is still bouncing in the Lord today. All this you can find in her book, ‘The Brigadier’s Daughter’.

I met Solape at Champion House, Ilasamaja, Lagos in 1988. I now know where the writing skills came from. My buddy, Offiong Esua, who lives in Houston, Texas with Goke Ademulegun gleaned from a retired Army Officer, that Brig. Ademulegun could fine tune prose and poetry.

I remember the day Ondo State governor, Captain Bode George, visited Champion House. As Prince Henry Odukomaiya got to Solape’s Desk, he introduced her as Brig. Ademulegun’s daughter. The naval officer was impressed. Like Mrs Ademulegun, he is a Lagosian. And George was sent to Ondo State, the home of the Ademuleguns.

Solape has soldiered on. She reminds me of the trauma kids who watched their parents die go through. I just would not know what got into Onwuatuegwu’s head at that moment because he spared the governor of Northern Region, Sir Kashim Ibrahim.

The assassination of the Ademuleguns was one reason Yoruba officers in the Nigeria Army swore that Onwuatuegwu would pay with his blood. He was smart enough not to go to Amichi where surrender talks were initiated. Death came through Bukar Sukar Dimka as Onwuatuegwu tried to escape to Cameroon in 1970.

The coup in Kaduna was hard on women. The same Onwuatuegwu, accompanied Chukwuma Nzeogwu to Col. Raphael Shodeinde’s house. The wife was injured in the assassination. The majors worked under the colonel at the Nigeria Military Training College, before he was tasked with the job of managing the Nigerian Defence byAcademy.

The Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello was shield by his wives when Nzeogwu struck. In that madness, the Sarduana
identified himself to save their lives. One of them, Hansatu, was not afraid of death. She chose to die with her husband.

In the counter coup of July 29, 1966 that followed, Capt. John Chukwueke’s family went through the same trauma. His wife, children and mother – in – law, were helpless as their bread winner was executed before them, in Lagos. We hardly hear of those ones and many others who perished during the pogrom and corollary Genocide.

After Ademulegun’s death, Col. Wellington Umoh Bassey, took over as Commander, 1 Brigade, Kaduna. Bassey was officially numbered as N/1 before Ironsi N/2, Ademulegun N/3 and Shodeinde N/4. Bassey was also (West Africa) WA/1.

One of Bassey’s children was livid with rage over Reno Omokri’s social media post that Solape and her brother, Goke, ran into their father’s room after the shooting. That is incorrect. The children were there when the deed was done. Those in other rooms were seniors like Frank, Bankole, Kunle and Gbenga.

What is in a name? While Bassey’s children have continued to be close to the surviving Ademuleguns, it is quite sad that one house boy bearing the same name and thrown out of the forest of a thousand demons, tried to dehumanise little Solape.

She is a fighter and does not forget family and friends. Recently, Dr. Raheem Ekemode, passed on. He was Olori Ebi of the Tinubu family. Solape’s grannie and Ekemode’s father were siblings. Solape’s other uncle, Lateef, took them in when he had nothing, preferring to sleep on the floor while his niece and nephew took over the bed and that was because uncle Bashir failed them.