{"id":10728,"date":"2024-11-06T10:11:45","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T10:11:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/?p=10728"},"modified":"2024-11-06T10:12:11","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T10:12:11","slug":"10728","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/2024\/11\/06\/10728\/","title":{"rendered":"Taoreed Lagbaja, Nigeria\u2019s Chief of Army Staff, is dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chief of Army Staff, Taoreed Lagbaja, is dead. He was 56.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Lagbaja, a lieutenant general, died in Lagos after a brief illness, presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga wrote in a Wednesday morning statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe passed away on Tuesday night in Lagos after a period of illness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Tinubu expresses his heartfelt condolences to the family and the Nigerian Armed Forces during this difficult time. He wishes Lt. General Lagbaja eternal peace and honours his significant contributions to the nation,\u201d Mr Onanuga wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was rumoured dead two weeks ago but the Defence Headquarters debunked<\/span><\/a> the news, explaining that he was on leave.<\/span><\/p>\n

A week after the rumoured death, PREMIUM TIMES reported<\/span><\/a> that President Bola Tinubu appointed Olufemi Oluyede, a major general, as acting chief of army staff.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Mr Oluyede was decorated with the new rank of lieutenant-general, an indication he is set to be made substantive army chief.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lagbaja\u2019s background<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Lagbaja was appointed as the army chief by President Tinubu on 19 June 2023<\/span><\/p>\n

He was born on 28 February 1968, in Ilobu, Irepodun Local Government Area<\/span><\/a> of Osun State. He lived his early life in Osogbo where he attended St Charles Grammar School and Local Authority Teachers College.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was admitted into the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) in 1987 as a member of the 39th Regular Course. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 19th September 1992 into the Nigerian Infantry Corps.<\/span><\/p>\n

Between 1992 and 1995, Mr Lagbaja was platoon commander of the 93 Battalion. From 1995 to 2001, he was platoon commander of 72 Special Forces Battalion. In 2001, he obtained a Bachelor\u2019s degree in Geography from the Nigerian Defence Academy. He studied Strategic Studies at the US Army War College at the Master\u2019s level.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was an instructor at Nigerian Defence Academy between 2001 and 2004. He was a Grade 2 Staff Officer in charge of peacekeeping at the Army Headquarters Department of Army Training and Operations. Then he was a Directing Staff at Armed Forces Command and Staff College from 2006 \u2013 2009.<\/span><\/p>\n

By 2009, he became Deputy Chief of Staff G1 at Headquarters 81 Division and subsequently, he became Commanding Officer at 72 Special Forces Battalion Makurdi from 2012 to 2013 and 2014 to 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2016, he was named the Chief of Staff at Headquarters 8 Task Force Division, Monguno. He served as Director of Operations at the Army Headquarters Department of Army Training and Operations from January \u2013 December 2018. He was a Commander of Headquarters 9 Brigade, Ikeja, Lagos State and Headquarters 2 Brigade, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before he was appointed as army chief, Mr Lagbaja was General Officer Commanding Headquarters 82 Division from March 2021 \u2013 August 2022 and Headquarters 1 Division \u2013 from August 2022 \u2013 June 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier in 2008, he attended the Military Observers Course on Peacekeeping Wing at the Nigerian Army School of Infantry Jaji (February \u2013 May 2008) and ECOWAS Standby Force Battalion Command Post Course \u2013 Peacekeeping Centre, Bamako, Mali \u2013 (June \u2013 August 2010).<\/span><\/p>\n

He started his career as a second lieutenant and died as a lieutenant general, a rank he attained in September 2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Lagbaja participated in Operation HARMONY IV in Bakassi Peninsula; United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC); Operation ZAKI Internal Security Operation in Benue State; Operation LAFIYA DOLE; Operation MESA\/Operation UDO KA \u2013 March 2021 \u2013 August 2022 \u2013 Internal Security Operation in South-east Nigeria (Anambra\/Abia\/Ebonyi\/Enugu and Imo States); and Operation FOREST SANITY \u2013 Aug 2022 to 2023 \u2013 Internal Security Operation in Kaduna\/Niger states.<\/span><\/p>\n

The deceased was married to Mariya Abiodun-Lagbaja and their marriage was blessed with two children.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Lagbaja is not the first army chief to die while in office.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2021, Ibrahim Attahiru, a lieutenant general and then chief of army staff died in a Kaduna-bound plane crash. Mr Attahiru died alongside 10 other military officers and crew.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chief of Army Staff, Taoreed Lagbaja, is dead. He was 56. Mr Lagbaja, a lieutenant general, died in Lagos<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10728"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10731,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10728\/revisions\/10731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thenewsnow.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}