Abuja. — Thirty-five years after their death in the January and July 1966 bloody coups, eight Nigerian soldiers were yesterday honoured in Abuja as the government named streets in the metropolis after them.

Speaking at a joint press conference by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Mr. Mohammed Abba-Gana and the Chief of Army Staff, Maj-Gen. Alexander Ogomudia, Abba-Gana said that all the eight streets are in Abuja and the naming was on the orders of President Olusegun Obasanjo last Monday.

"The naming of the streets in honour of the eight victims of the military coups d'etat is in furtherance of this administration's programme of re-orientating the citizenry on the path of patriotism, heroism and nationalism," the minister said.

The names of the eight soldiers who died in the first coup of January 1966 and the counter putsch of August of the same year are as follows: Brigadier Samuel Adesujo, who got former street B4-A in the Central Area, Garki named after him, Col. Kur Mohamed, replaces the name of Street B4-B in the Central Area, Lt-Col. Francis Adekunle Fajuyi, Brigadier Zakaria Maimalari and Col. Ralph Sodeinde, had streets N9- B14-A, B14-B respectively all in the Central District, Garki.

The road through Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to the main gate of the Minister of FCT, Area 11, has been renamed, Lt-Col. Author Unegbe Street. Street B6-B12 by Abuja Gardens in the Central Area, has now been renamed, Lt. Col. Yakubu James Pam Street. And finally, late Col. Abogo Largema Street, is now the name for Street S15, Central Market, in the Central Area.

According to Maj-Gen. Ogomudia, the fact that the late soldiers were killed because they were loyal to the then democratic government made them worthy of such honour. Ogomudia who said that the military has no special welfare package for the family of the deceased other than their entitlements said that he was making the pension scheme of the Army more transparent and efficient.