Former First Lady Victoria Aguiyi-Ironsi Dies At 97

Chief Mrs. Victoria Aguiyi-Ironsi, wife of late Nigerian Head of State, Major General J.T.U. Aguiyi-Ironsi, is dead. The former first lady died on Monday at the age of 97. On November 21, 2021, she would have been 98 years old. Victoria’s husband, Aguiyi-Ironsi, was the supreme commander of the National Military Government for six months before being deposed and assassinated in the Nigerian counter-coup of 1966.

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From 16 January 1966 to 29 July 1996, Victoria Nwanyiocha Aguyi-Ironsi served as Nigeria’s second First Lady. General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, her late husband, was the first Nigerian military head of state. He was assassinated in Ibadan during a countercoup led by Murtala Muhammed, which resulted in the installation of Yakubu Gowon. She married Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi as a 16-year old student of Holy Rosary Convent School, Okigwe in 1953. Following the death of Samuel Ademulegun and his wife, she moved his children from Kaduna to Lagos and cared for them. She had eight children who were taken away and cared for by nuns in Ibadan under the direction of Adekunle Fajuyi. In Umuahia, she was a commissioner of the Local Government Services Commission. Ironsi was the first to hold the office of First Lady. Aguiyi-Ironsi added prestige to the office. She was frequently dressed in traditional attire, and her style has been described as “pretty and effortlessly regal.” Victoria Aguiyi-Ironsi

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