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By Salim Yunusa
President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed Major-General Farouk Yahaya as Acting Chief of Army Staff (COAS), succeeding, albeit in acting capacity, the late Lt.-General Ibrahim Attahiru, who died in an air mishap at Kaduna, on Friday last week.
A statement by the Acting Director, Defence Information, Brigadier-General Onyema Nwachukwu, on Thursday in Abuja, confirmed the appointment by Mr President.
The statement by the Acting Director Defence Information said, with official File Number DHQ/ABJ/901/32/DDI, and titled, President Buhari Appoints New Chief of Army Staff, said, inter alia, “The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, has appointed Major-General Farouk Yahaya as the new Chief of Army Staff.
“Prior to his appointment, Major-General Yahaya was the General Officer Commanding 1 Division of the Nigerian Army and the incumbent Theatre Commander of the Counter Terrorism/Counter Insurgency military outfit in the North-East, code-named ‘Operation HADIN KAI’.”
The late COAS, Lt-Gen. Attahiru and ten other military personnel, including three of the rank of brigadier-general and the pilot of the ill-fated aircraft, were buried in Abuja last Saturday.
President Buhari directed that that national flag be flown at half-mast for three days while soldiers took a day off to honour the memory if the fallen military officers.
