Johnson Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi GCFR MVO MBE (3 March 1924 – 29 July 1966) was a Nigerian general who was the first military head of state of Nigeria.

He ruled from 16 January 1966,[2] until his assassination on 29 July in the same year, by a group of mutinous Northern Nigerian officers and men.

[3] Thomas Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi was born into the family of Ezeugo Aguiyi on 3 March 1924, in Ibeku, Umuahia, now in Abia State, Nigeria.

[17] On 15 January 1966, young radical and revolutionary soldiers drawn from different tribal extractions, led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, from Okpanam near Asaba, Noé in Delta State, eradicated the uppermost echelon of politicians from the Northern and the Western Provinces.

[19] Also an Igbo, President Nnamdi Azikiwe refusing to intervene to ensure the continuity of civilian rule, Aguiyi-Ironsi effectively compelled the remaining members of Balewa's government to resign.

Though Aguiyi-Ironsi tried to dispel that notion by courting the aggrieved ethnic groups through political appointments and patronage, his failure to punish the coup plotters and the promulgation of the now-infamous "Decree No.

The Circulation of Newspaper Decree No.2 removed the restrictions on press freedom that had been put in place by the preceding civilian administration.

His host, Lieutenant Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi, military governor of Western Nigeria, alerted him to a possible mutiny within the army.

[23] Danjuma arrested Aguiyi-Ironsi and questioned him about his alleged complicity in the coup, which saw the demise of the Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello.

The circumstances leading to Aguiyi-Ironsi's death have remained a subject of much controversy in Nigeria until now people claimed it had something to do related on his nicknames and legend.

His son, Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, was appointed to the position of Nigeria's Defence Minister on 30 August 2006, forty years after his father's death.