BY QUADRI SALIU
Nigeria Chief of Army Staff, General Ibrahim Attahiru, is dead.
He died with his wife in a plane crash on Friday evening near the Kaduna International Airport. A source said there were eight persons on board the aircraft.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru and his wife, Fati, died in a plane crash involving a Nigerian Air Force aircraft.
The couple and six other military officers died near Kaduna airport where the Chief of Army Staff was billed to commission a project in one of the military formations in Kaduna State.
The Director public relations and information, Nigerian Air Force, Commodore Edward Gabkwet, confirmed the crash in a statement.
He said there was an air crash involving a Nigerian Air Force plane but did not reveal identities of those on board.
Details of the incident that led to his death were still sketchy at time of this publication.
However, feeler from the military disclosed that the General met his untimely death during the plane crash this evening in Kaduna.
The Nigerian Air Force has however in a statement confirmed that there was an accident involving one of its aircraft in Kaduna but did not go into details.
The statement signed by Edward Gabkwet, the force’s Director of Public Relations and Information read: “An air crash involving a @NigAirForce aircraft occurred this evening near the Kaduna International Airport. The immediate cause of the crash is still being ascertained. More details to follow soon.”
Attahiru was appointed Chief of Army Staff on January 26, 2021.
Born on 10th August 1966 in Doka, Kaduna North Local Government Area, Kaduna State, he graduated from the Nigerian Defence Academy.
He commenced cadets training in January 1984 and was commissioned into the rank of Second Lieutenant in December 1986 as an Infantry Officer. He holds a Masters’s degree in Strategic Management and Policy Studies from the Nigerian Defence Academy.
General Attahiru has held several appointments on the staff, instructional, and in command during his military career. He had a tour of duty with the United Nations in Sierra Leone as a Military Observer, where he facilitated United Kingdom military engagement, Operation BARASS in September 2000.
He was an Operation Officer and later Company Commander in NIBATT 19 ECOMOG Operations in Liberia. Also, he had the unique privilege of having commanded with distinction all through the chain of command in the Nigerian Army.
Prominent among these appointments is Commanding Officer 146 Battalion Nigerian Army (Operation HARMONY IV) in the Bakassi Peninsula, Commander 13 Brigade Nigerian Army (Operation PULO SHIELD), General Officer Commanding 82 Division Nigerian Army. He was a one-time Theatre Commander Operation LAFIYA DOLE.
