Chukwuma Nzeogwu
| Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu | |
|---|---|
| Chief Instructor, Nigerian Military Training College | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1937 Kaduna, Kaduna State, Nigeria |
| Died | 1967 Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria |
| Alma mater | R.M.A. Sandhurst |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | |
| Service/branch |
 Nigerian Army
|
| Rank | |
Major Patrick Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, (1937–1967) was a Nigerian military officer who played a leading role in the January 15, 1966 military coup, an event that derailed Nigeria's nascent democracy and introduced military rule to Nigeria. Nzeogwu was born in the Northern Region’s capital of Kaduna to Igbo immigrant parents from the Mid-Western Region-Okpanam Town, near Asaba in the present day Anioma Delta State.
Nzeogwu attended Saint Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Kaduna for his elementary education and for his secondary education attended the competitive Saint John's College in Kaduna, where he became close friends with Christian Anufuro.
In March 1957, Nzeogwu enlisted as an officer-cadet in the Nigeria Regiment of the West African Frontier Force and proceeded on a 6-month preliminary training in Ghana, then Gold Coast. He completed his training in Ghana by October 1957 and proceeded to the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst where he was commissioned as an infantry officer in 1959. He later underwent a platoon officer's course in Hythe and a platoon commander's course in Warminster
On his return to Nigeria in May 1960, Nzeogwu was posted to the 1st Battalion in Enugu where Major Aguiyi-Ironsi was the second-in-command under a British officer. He was later posted to the 5th Battalion in Kaduna where he became friends with Olusegun Obasanjo. His Hausa colleagues in the Nigerian Army gave him the name “Kaduna” because of his affinity with the town.
After serving in the Congo in 1961, Nzeogwu was assigned as a training officer at the Army Training Depot in Zaria for about 6 months before getting posted to Lagos to head up the military intelligence section at the Army Head Quarters where he was the first Nigerian officer. The forerunner of the Nigerian Army Intelligence Corps (NAIC) was the Field Security Section (FSS) of the Royal Nigerian Army, which was established on 1 November 1962 with Captain PG Harrington (BR) as General Staff Officer Grade Two (GSO2 Int). The FSS was essentially a security organization whose functions included vetting of Nigerian Army (NA) personnel, document security and counter intelligence. Major Nzeogwu was the first Nigerian Officer to hold that appointment from November 1962 to 1964. As a military intelligence officer, he participated in the treasonable felony trial investigations of Obafemi Awolowo and other Action Group party members. According to Olusegun Obasanjo, "Chukwuma had some scathing remarks to make about [Nigeria's] national security, and about those who were being investigated. If he had his way, he said, his treatment of the whole case would have been different".
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