Suspects in an attempted coup were publicly executed by firing squad in Lago, Nigeria, Africa, on March 11, 1976; 32 of the suspects involved in the February 13 coup attempt were executed by firing squad.

 　　Suspects in the attempted coup were publicly executed by firing squad in Lago, Nigeria, Africa, on March 11, 1976.Thirty-two of the suspects involved in the February 13, 1976 coup attempt were executed by firing squad.

　The 1976 Nigerian Coup Attempt was an attempted military coup in Nigeria on February 13, 1976. A faction of military officers led by Lieutenant Colonel Bukar Suwa Dimka attempted to overthrow the government of General Murtala Mohammed (who took power in a coup in July 1975).

　 General Mohammed was assassinated in Lagos along with his aide, Lieutenant Akintunde Akinsehinwa. Mohammed's car was ambushed by army soldiers led by Dimka in Ikoyi on the way to the Dodan barracks. The coup attempt was suppressed by Nigerian government forces a few hours later.

  After a nearly three-week manhunt, Lieutenant Colonel Dimka was arrested on March 6, 1976, near Abakaliki in southeastern Nigeria. Following a court-martial, 38 military and civilians, including Lt. Col. Dimka, were sentenced to death by firing squad. Dimka and six other co-conspirators were shot to death on May 15, 1976. General Mohammed was succeeded as Nigeria's head of state by Lieutenant General Olusegun Obasanjo.

 In border disputes since the early 1960s, many African colonies have transitioned to independent states with the cooperation of the Commonwealth. In Nigeria, Africa's largest nation, the transition to the Commonwealth was almost as smooth as it initially appeared on the outside. Even Nigeria, the centerpiece of Britain's democratic export, was embroiled in a long and bloody civil war as early as 1965. Demonstrating the problems of political integration and nation-building in the African context, the 1970s ended with military rule, a hallmark of most independent states; from 1966 to 1993, seven military coups broke out in Nigeria; from 1967 to 1970, the Biafra Civil War broke out; from 1979 to A second republic was established until 1983.