From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo will on Wednesday, July 29, visit Abia State for the 60th memorial celebration of the first military head of state of Nigeria, late Major -General Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi.
The event will be held at the Major-General J.T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi Conference Centre, Umuahia, the Abia State capital. According to the itinerary of the visit which is at the behest of the Ironsi family, the former president will leave Lagos on the morning of July 29, for Umuahia, Abia State.
Chief Obasanjo is expected to depart Abia back to Lagos on the same day at the end of the event. General Aguiyi-Ironsi was born on March 3, 1924, and enrolled into the Nigerian Army in 1942, at the age of 18.
He became the first military head of state following the January 15, 1966 military coup. Ironsi ruled till July 29, 1966 when he was assassinated in the July counter-coup.
(The Sun)