Ademulegun: 60 years of pain by Emeka Obasi

Orphaned when parental care was most needed, the children of Brigadier Samuel Adesujo Ademulegun and his spouse, Latifat Feyisitan Abike ( nee Ekemode – Noble ) are at sea about the burial site of their parents who were murdered sixty years ago, in Kaduna.

Both were killed during the January 15, 1966 coup right inside their Kachia Road bedroom. Brigadier Ademulegun, commander, 1 Brigade of the Nigeria Army, was an officer and gentleman who distinguished himself at home and abroad. In 1964, he led troops to control mutinous Tanzanian soldiers.

Mrs Ademulegun, a London trained nurse, was eight months pregnant at the time of her death. Three of the six Ademulegun children were at home with their parents. Solape, six and Goke, 4, were right inside that same bedroom. Kole, 13, was within distance.

Francis Bamidele Ademulegun, grew up loving the military, like his father and rose to the rank of Group Captain in the Nigerian Air Force. He is late. Adekunle is gone too. Bankole passed on in 2023. That leaves Gbenga, Solape (now Mrs Ademulegun – Agbi) and Goke,  still asking questions.

The big question and puzzle is : What happened to the remains of Brig. Ademulegun (N/3) and his wife, Latifat, who was fondly called Sisi Nurse?

Solape, a Journalist turned  Educationist has remained sleepless, for 60 donkey years. She said : “Each time I remember my childhood pains and where I would have been today, if they had lived, as old as I am, I still shed silent tears.”

The weeping has endured and Solape and her siblings are  waiting for their morning of joy. “Where were the Ademuleguns buried, the Brigadier, his wife and the unborn child? Where were their bodies taken to, the morning after the massacre? No one has answered. A constant reminder of the never ending pain. No closure even after 60 years.

“We have written several letters, we have attempted to meet with several high ranking officers, all to no avail.  Each attempt either starts and ends before it gets anywhere or never works, at all. Sixty years of pain, that’s what we are going through. We are appealing so that we can get a closure,” she cried out.

The surviving Ademulegun children do not want to go back to their Maker without identifying the burial site of their parents. “We want answers before we all step to the great beyond. To us, our parents remain unburied. We do not ask for material things.

“We are appealing to the Commander – in – Chief, to please instruct the Army or the Archives, to please dig up History and let us know where our parents were buried. Brig. Ademulegun is the unsung hero, the forgotten hero. His legacies have also been forgotten,” Solape added.

Goke, lives in the United States. His elder sister visits regularly. Their children, like other Americans, observe January 15 as Civil Rights leader,  Martin Luther King, Jnr’s birthday. While America celebrates, the Ademuleguns have tears running down their cheeks.

Defence minister, Gen. Christopher Musa hails from Kaduna State. The Ademuleguns believe he can help dig into the issue of  the search for the burial site of their parents. It is quite possible to brief President Bola Tinubu, who knows the Ekemode family of Lagos, Sisi Nurse’s maiden home, so well.

It is strange that Maj. Chukwuma Nzeogwu, the man who led Northern Operations during that first coup, of January 15 1966, was given full military compliments in death and his body flown from Nsukka to Kaduna, for burial. There is no record anywhere that Brig. Ademulegun’s body was interred by the same people who continue to demonise the 1966 Majors.

The remains of the Ademuleguns must be somewhere. Questions will lead to answers. There is no record that Maj. Tim Onwuatuegwu took the bodies away. In Lagos, the military found the corpses of officers who lost their lives. Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa was buried in his village in far away North Eastern Nigeria.

Impossibility is not the word here. What is needed, is the will to dig deeper. In August 2021, president John Kufuor of Ghana orderered the exhumation of skeletal remains of eight top officers, including three former Heads of State who were executed in 1979 by the Jerry Rawlings regime.

Generals Akwasi Africa, Kutu Acheampong and Fred Akuffo joined AVM Yaw Boakye, Robert Korea, Rear Adm. Joy Amedume, Gen. Emmanuel Utuka and Col. Roger Felli at the Labadi shooting range in an execution after which they were buried at Adoagy Government Cemetery.

More bodies were exhumed in 2024. The six were shot in 1986 for allegedly plotting against Rawlings. The remains of Mawuli Goka, Kojo Djan, Samuel Atta, Brefo Berko, A.B. Kankami and C. Koomson were handed over to their respective families for proper burial.

Brig. Ademulegun was not involved in any coup attempt. He served Nigeria diligently, was honoured by the Queen of England and excelled as a man of letters whose poems could win awards. This doting dad who loved horses deserves full military honours, in death.

His children have chosen January 15, 2026, to remember their hero and heroin, in Lagos. There is no cenotaph to visit. Poetry flows with flowers. Where are they going to lay wreaths? Military heroes are buried across memorial parks in Nigeria.

Neither Solape nor Goke will be on Planet Earth in the next 60 years. These kids of 1966, have been in tears for 60 long years. From losing their parents, they  are still wondering where the bodies lie. Truth heals, lies do more harm to the body and soul. Samuel Adesujo and Latifat Abike Ademulegun died for Nigeria. This country must give them proper burial.

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