TheCable

The Nigeria army council has approved the promotion of 227 officers.

Its spokesman, Sani Kukasheka Usman (pictured), was promoted from colonel to brigadier general, while former DG of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), JB Olawunmi, was promoted major general.

Olawunmi is currently the acting coordinator, Nigerian army aviation corps.

In total, those promoted include 21 brigadier generals to major generals, 93 colonels to brigadier generals and 113 lieutenant colonels to colonels.

Some of them are brigadier generals – CM Abraham, acting general officer commanding (GOC) 2 division; OU Obono, acting corps commander, Nigerian army artillery corps; PJ Dauke, acting GOC 3 division; AA Nani, acting GOC 8 task force division;  CC Okonkwo, commander 48 task force division engineers;  MSA Aliyu and AM Jalingo.  They were all promoted to the rank of major general.

Also, some of those promoted from the rank of colonel to brigadier general are IY Dogara, EO Aikhomu, Aminu Bande, IFD Briggs, PA Alamba, UU Bassey, UT Musa, AS Ndalolo,  AI Taiwo, Y Hassan, IOO Olotta, UT Utaru,  SK Usman, CC Iroegbu, acting director of chaplain service (Roman Catholic), DD Danfulani,  acting director of chaplain service (protestant), and SG Mustapha, acting director Islamic affairs.

In a statement issued late Friday night, Usman said those promoted had distinguished themselves in the service of the country.

“Promotion in the Nigerian army is an annual exercise by the Service to qualified personnel who have distinguished themselves over stipulated period of time,” he said.

“Earlier in the year, the Nigerian army carried out several promotion exercises for other categories of its personnel. These include the junior non-commission officers (JNCOs), senior non-commission officers and warrant officers category, as well as junior officers from the rank of second lieutenant to lieutenants, lieutenants to captains and from captains to majors.”

He added that the exercise – the approval of the promotion by the army council for senior officers –  was the last for the year.