It is no gainsaying that what happened in Nigeria in January 1966 is unprecedented in history. Never before, as far as we are aware has a civilian government invited an army take-over, or the armed forces to form an interim Government. We disagree with the Attorney-General that these events in January 1966 are tantamount to a revolution. As Chief Williams for the appellants puts it, quoting from the Shorter Oxford Dictionary, a revolution occurs when ”there is an overthrow of an established government by those who were previously subject to it” or ”where there is a forcible substitution of a new ruler or form of Government”. These, from the facts, did not take place in Nigeria in 1966 as the situation to which we have previously referred – a rebellion by some members of the Armed Forces – caused the Acting President, with the advice of the Council of Ministers in the absence of the Prime Minister, to hand over power to the Armed Forces. We venture to put the attitude of the Acting President and the Council of Ministers to the head of the Army thus – your men have started a rebellion, which we fear may spread; you have the means to deal with them. We leave it to you to deal with them and after this, return the administrative power of the Government to us.
— Ademola, CJN. Lakanmi v AG Western Nigeria (1970) – SC.58/69