By Hassan Zaggi
The Acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, has described the late Chief Of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, as “an exceptional military strategist, a friend of inestimable value, and an excellent partner in the ongoing fight against insurgency and other security challenges in the country.”
In a statement signed by the Force Spokesman, Frank Mba, in Abuja, Saturday, the IGP said that the late COAS represented “the best in the military tradition of courage, forthrightness, discipline, professional excellence, passion for national service, and strategic leadership”.
He, therefore, condoled with President Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian Armed Forces, families and friends of the late Army Chief, other military officers and crew, who died in an unfortunate air-mishap while on national assignment on Friday, May 21, 2021.
“The IGP is saddened by the fact that the late COAS died while on a patriotic mission to advance the course of peace and save the lives of others.
“The IGP acknowledged that the death of Lt. Gen. Attahiru is even more painful given the equally highly-loyal, promising and professionally excellent officers, whose lights were eternally dimmed along with him in the ill-fated flight.
“This is in addition to the reality that he left a nation he so much loved at a time his experience and service are most critical to our nation’s stability,” the statement noted.
The IGP, therefore, urged the members of the Nigerian Armed Forces, particularly the officers and men of the Nigerian Army, not to allow the tragic incident to dampen their morale, advising them to remain focused in the collective quests at restoring law and order in the country, as that, according to him, will be the most befitting honour and memorial “we can collectively give to the late General and the other fallen heroes.”
