Major-General Farouk Yahaya was on Thursday appointed the new Chief of Army Staff to replace Lt General Ibrahim Attahiru, who died in an air crash on Friday, May 21, 2021.
This was confirmed by the military in a statement issued by its spokesperson, Brigadier-General Onyema Nwachukwu.
Here are five things to know about Nigeria’s third Army Chief in three months.
1. Yahaya of Regular Course 37 is from Zamfara State.
2. He is an alumnus of 37RC of the department of History and War Studies, class of 1985-1989.
3. He is the outgoing Theatre Commander of the Counter terrorism Counter Insurgency military outfit in the North East code-named Operation HADIN KAI.
4. Yahaya had a stint as the General Officer Commander (GOC) 1 Division of the Nigerian Army and the Theatre Commander of the Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Insurgency military outfit, Operation Lafiya Dole, in the North-East.
5. He controversially replaced Maj Gen OG Adeniyi on the frontlines in March 2020 with the latter redeployed to the Nigerian Army Research Centre as Senior Research Fellow. Adeniyi had, in a video, said Boko Haram fighters attacked his troops with 15 gun trucks and fired over a hundred rocket propelled grenades.
