In 1952, Mallam Umaru Altine became the first elected Mayor of the Enugu Municipal Council. A post he held until 1958.
A Fulani cattle rearer from Sokoto, Mallam Altine, who was married to an Igbo woman, Esther Ozueh, was elected for two terms.
In his first term, he had run as an NCNC candidate but in the build-up to the elections for his second term, the NCNC asked him to step down for another candidate but he refused and was forced to resign from the NCNC.
Nevertheless, he ran as an independent candidate and defeated the NCNC candidate, D.T Inyang, by 117 to 53 votes. In fact, in his ward, he was returned unopposed.
Thus, a Fulani man from Sifawa, in the then Sokoto Province, almost 700 miles from the Eastern Region, who had lived in Enugu for less than 5 years, became the first Mayor of the Capital of the then Eastern Region. #HistoryVille
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Two of Nigeria’s leading politicians, Bola Ige and Funsho Williams were assassinated during Nigeria’s nascent Fourth Republic. While Ige was shot and killed in Ibadan on December 23, 2001, Williams was stabbed and strangled to death in his home in Lagos on July 27, 2006.
Bola Ige had been involved in controversies within his party, Alliance for Democracy (AD), which led to brows being raised at the then Deputy Governor of Osun State, Iyiola Omisore as being responsible for the murder because of their recent feuds.
President Olusegun Obasanjo quickly deployed troops to the southwest to prevent a violent reaction to the murder. Everyone arrested and tried in connection with Ige's murder including Iyiola Omisore were discharged and acquitted. The killers are yet to be found to this day.
Canoeing specialist Bill Havens was almost guaranteed to win a gold medal in the 1924 Olympics in Paris. But a few months before the games he learned that his wife would likely give birth to their first child while he was away.
She told him that she could make it on her own, but this was a milestone Bill didn’t want to miss. So he surprised everyone and stayed home. He greeted his infant son, Frank, into the world on August 1, 1924.
Though he always wondered what might have been, he said he never regretted his decision. He poured his life into that little lad and shared with him a love for the rapids.
Twenty-eight years passed, and the Olympic Games were held in Helsinki, Finland.
“Akintola, come down; you are for lawful arrest by the army on orders from HQ 2 Brigade,” Nwobosi shouted.
“Under arrest, ke?” Akintola said to himself, “Oya, come and greet your mother’s husband,” as he cocked his gun.
When Nwobosi hit the door in an attempt to force it open, the Premier opened fire from inside his bedroom with a submachine gun, shooting contiguously and continuously through the closed door.
“Return fire,” Captain Nwobosi ordered his men, which they did, enormously.
“Please sir, surrender sir. Stop shooting, please. They only came to take us to Lagos,” Fani-Kayode pleaded and shouted from the landrover urging the Premier to cease firing and surrender. But the Premier kept on firing until he ran out of ammunition.
However, Ifeajuna replied by kicking the doors open with his boots.
“You’re under arrest sir,” Ifeajuna said, pointing his gun at the Prime Minister, who looked startled.
“Get up sir, we don’t have a lot of time.”
“All right,” the Prime Minister replied gently, “allow me to get dressed.”
He put on a white flowing robe with white trousers, a pair of slippers, and his prayer beads. Without fear and a disciplined face, he trudged out of the room...
...and the residence gently as Ifeajuna and his soldiers accompanied him with pointed guns.
When they reached the parked vehicles, Ezedigbo had arrested the Finance Minister, Chief Okotie-Eboh, and had tossed him like a bag of groundnuts into the back of the 3-Ton truck while...
When the British slave ship, "Zong" sailed from Accra with 442 slaves on August 18, 1781, it had taken on more than twice the number of people that it could safely transport (in order to maximise profit), when it was discovered that the water supply would not be enough.
If the slaves died a natural death the loss would fall on the owners. But if they were cast into the sea to drown, the loss would be covered by insurance, £30 for each slave lost. And that's what they did.
On November 29, 1781, 54 women and children were thrown through cabin windows into the sea.
On December 1, 1781, 42 male enslaved people were thrown overboard, and 36 more followed in the next few days.
OPERATION DAMISA: THE ASSASSINATION OF SIR AHMADU BELLO, THE SARDAUNA OF SOKOTO, JANUARY 15, 1966
''Ina Sardauna? Where is the Sardauna?” Nzeogwu shouted, pointing his gun at him but the man kept shaking his head asserting no knowledge of the Sardauna’s location.
“If you won’t tell me where your master is, I’ll kill you,” Nzeogwu screamed at him in Hausa.
“Okay, okay,” the man replied fearfully and led Nzeogwu to the annex of the building. Three other soldiers followed Nzeogwu while Waribor and the rest returned to the staging area...
As Nzeogwu approached the adjoining rooms the man was leading them to, he heard screams and cries of women and children.
“Where’s the Sardauna?” Nzeogwu shouted. But the women would not allow Bello to move. Even the children were clinging to their mothers.