Nigeria, 1962 — dissident coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 1 October 1962, Nigeria's independence day, during the treason case against opposition leader Chief Obafemi Awolowo and his Action Group. Amid a constitutional crisis in the Western Region, Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa had declared a state of emergency on 29 May 1962, and searches during the emergency turned up quantities of arms and ammunition allegedly imported to overthrow the federal government. Prosecutors charged that Awolowo planned to topple Balewa around 21 September 1962 with the help of some two hundred trained men, on the eve of a state visit by India's Nehru, with arms and funds obtained through Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana.
Awolowo was arrested on 1 November 1962, tried over ten months, and convicted of treasonable felony in September 1963, receiving a ten year sentence, while his associate Anthony Enahoro got fifteen years. Awolowo denied the charges, and the trial's fairness remains debated; the affair decapitated the Action Group and deepened the regional rivalries that led to the 1966 coups.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
47510011962
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Prime Minister Balewa survived; Awolowo was convicted and jailed, and Balewa was killed in the January 1966 coup.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
New York Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →