Victoria Aguiyi-Ironsi, the wife of late Nigerian head of state, Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, is dead.
The former first lady passed on Monday, 23 August, at 97.
Born on November 21, 1923, she was the second First Lady of Nigeria from January 16, 1966, to July 29, 1996.
Victoria’s husband Aguiyi-Ironsi was the supreme commander of the National Military Government for six months before being overthrown and assassinated in the 1966 Nigerian counter-coup carried out by Nigerian military officers of Northern extraction.
Aguiyi-Ironsi was killed in Ibadan in the countercoup led by Murtala Muhammed and which led to the installation of then Colonel Yakubu Gowon as head of state.
Reflecting on her life after the gruesome murder of her husband in an interview with The Guardian newspaper on June 3, 2016, she said: “The truth is that 29th of July this year will be 50 years since my husband was killed. By then, I had eight children. I have seen hell and at the same time, I have seen heaven.”
Following the killing of her husband, Chief Mrs. Victoria Aguiyi-Ironsi, who never re-married, raised their children alone.
Comments