Acting Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba Alkali, on Saturday, May 22, 2021, commiserated with the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian Armed Forces, families and friends of the late Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Ibrahim Attahiru, other military officers and crew, who died in an air mishap while on national assignment on Friday, May 21.
In a statement issued by the Force Public Relations Officer, CP Frank Mba, the IGP expressed his sadness that General Attahiru died while on a patriotic mission to advance the course of peace and save the lives of others.
In his tribute to the late COAS, the IGP described him 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”.
Mba said that the IGP noted that the late COAS represented “the best in the military tradition of courage, forthrightness, discipline, professional excellence, passion for national service, and strategic leadership”.
Alkali also remarked that the COAS’s death was more painful with the demise of equally loyal, promising and professionally excellent officers, whose lights were eternally dimmed along with him in the ill-fated flight.
He added that the deaths brought the reality that the COAS, with others, left a nation they so much loved at a time their experiences and services were most critical to the nation’s stability.
“The IGP 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, but to remain focused in the collective quests at restoring law and order in the country, as that will be the most befitting honour and memorial we can collectively give to the late General and the other fallen heroes,” Mba added.
