Full List: Lagbaja and other COAS who died in office

The dead of Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, the Chief of Army Staff, has thrown the nation into mourning. But is there a cause to that?

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He was the third Chief of Army Staff to die in office – and all of their deaths were conspicuously sudden and accompanied with sort of stories.

Joseph Akahan

Shortly before civil war broke out in 1967, Joseph Akahan was appointed Chief of Army Staff.

The public were told that Akahan had visited war fronts at Nsuka then went to have brief rest at his hometown in Gboko. On his way to Makurdi, the helicopter carrying him crashed. He died, aged 30. Two pilots on board with him died, too.

Ibrahim Attahiru

In the days of President Olusegun Obasanjo, another COAS died. Again his dead was sudden and seems shrouded in mystery.

Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru was appointed Chief of Army Staff in 2021, but he died few months into his tenure.

It was reported that Attahiru left Abuja to Kaduna on official assignment. His aircraft “experienced severe weather conditions” and crashed. He and 10 members of his entourage died in the crash.

The timing of the “crash” that killed Attahiru raised eyebrows.

He, with other service chiefs including Lucky Irabor (Chief of Defence Staff), Zubairu Gambo (Chief of Naval Staff), and Isiaka Amao (Chief of Air Staff), had just been appointed following hot outcry for leadership change in the Nigeria armed forces due to overwheming security concern.

In other words, Attahiru was chosen probably because he had special skills in meeting the nation’s security challenges at the time. Then, all of a sudden he died in a “crash.”

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Taoreed Lagbaja

Lagbaja’s death, announced this morning by the presidency, seems to follow the same storyline.

He didn’t died in plane crash like other Chiefs of Army Staff. But there was no plausible details as regards the circumstances behind his sudden death, apart from that he was incapacitated due to “illness.”