SITUATION IN NIGERIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP79T00826A001100010002-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 25, 2006
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: July 30, 1966
• Content Type: IM

Approved For ,ilease 2006/ ~V79T0082&01100010002-1
100
No. 1626/66
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Directorate of Intelligence
30 July 1966
INTELLIGENCE MEMORANDUM
Situation in Nigeria
As of 2:00'EDT
1. Negotiations toward the formation of a
new government are now under way in Lagos.
Brigadier Ogundipe, who appears to be one of the
key leaders of the military government as it now
exists, is representing Western Yoruba interests,
the deputy police chief and two northern civil
servants are representing the northern Hause tribes,
while the Federal Attorney general is standing in
for the eastern Ibos. They are probably planning
some form of "loose federation" of Nigeria's mutu-
ally antagonistic ethnic groups.
2. The Western region of Nigeria is apparently
now under rebel control. The Ibo commander of the
third battalion in Kaduna, capital of the Northern
region, has been killed and his northern troops seem
to be in charge. The army chief of staff is now at
Ikeja, site of the international airport serving Lagos,
negotiating a settlement with the rebellious Hause
troops who are still in control there. Lagos, Kaduna,
and Ibadan are outwardly calm, as is the Eastern
region.
3. Major-General Ironsi may still be alive but
it appears unlikely that he will be able to reassert
his authority. Nigeria's new government--probably a
modified military regime in which the Ibos will no
longer be dominant--will most likely abandon Ironsi's
plans for a unitary form of government.
4. The disorders so far appear to be purely
military and tribal in nature and have had no anti-
European overtones.
Approved For Release 200 /02/07 : CIA-RDP79T00826AO01 00010002-1 25X1
SEC