Olusegun Obasanjo was Deputy to Murtala Muhammad, Murtala Muhammad was Nigeria's third military head of state, he succeeded General Yakubu Gowon, in a bloodless military coup in 1975. He then commenced to the governance of Nigeria from the moment of his Takeover in a military Coup, until he was gunned down by armed military men at a traffic point in Lagos State Nigeria. barely 200 days from when he took the oath of Office.
The man who led the team that killed General Murtala Muhammad was LT. Col. Buka Suka Dimka, of the Physical Education Corp of the Nigerian Army. the action of Dimka soon after the assassination of the head of state, showed clearly that Dimka’s mission was to effect a change of government in Nigeria, and possibly install a government conceived by him. In such situation, if the person that served as Murtala’s Deputy had been seen or found, Dimka and his men would have assassinated him in their Beed to effectively bring Murtala’s regime to a conclusive end. As noted earlier, General Murtala’s Deputy was General Olusegun Obasanjo also, a general in the Nigerian Army.