Dodan Barracks was one of the bases of a group of Nigerian Army majors who overthrew the First Nigerian Republic in January 1966. The coup was suppressed by the army, whose commander, Major General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, then became head of state. In July 1966, Dodan Barracks became the seat of power in Nigeria after a counter-coup in which Ironsi was killed and his chief of staff, General Yakubu Gowon was made head of state, moving into the Federal Guard officer's mess. The Barracks was the location where Gowon received the formal Biafran surrender at the end of the Nigerian Civil War in January 1970. Subsequent rulers kept their base at the barracks for the next quarter of a century.