Ex-minister, Gen Olanrewaju, mourns late Lagbaja

Former Minister of Communications, Major General Tajudeen Olanrewaju (Rtd), has condoled with the Nigerian Armed Forces and in particular the Nigerian Army, over the death of Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, describing his passing as a rude shock.

Lagbaja died in Lagos on Tuesday November 5, 2024, in a Lagos hospital after a brief illness.

General Olanrewaju, a former General Officer Commanding (GOC) 3 Division Nigerian Army, who is also former Deputy Defence Adviser, Moscow and Member Provisional Ruling Council (PRC), while noting that the news of the death of Lagbaja had “been one that is uneasy,” acknowledged his bravery in battlefield in defense of his fatherland.

According to the former minister, the late COAS served his nation, Nigeria loyally and with a noble sense of patriotism in his line of duty, but succumbed to the cruel hand of death like any living mortal.

Olanrewaju, therefore, prayed that God should rest the soul of the deceased in peace, whom he said “lived a well spent, though shortlived, life as a soldier, officer, commander and, above all, Chief of the Army of the Federal Republic.”

“Here is an infantry officer, who showed gut where it mattered most in the battlefield, defending the fatherland. He succumbed to the cruel hand of death like any living mortal,” he said.

“He served his nation loyally and with a noble sense of patriotism in his line of duty. May his soul rest in peace, Amen,” he prayed.

READ MORE FROM: NIGERIAN TRIBUNE