The newly appointed Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Faruk Yahaya has been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General in the Nigerian Army.

Yahaya was decorated on Wednesday by President Muhammadu Buhari and assisted by Vice president Yemi Osinbajo shortly before the commencement of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa, in Abuja on Wednesday.

Officials present at the ceremony were Ibrahim Gambari, Chief of Staff to the President; Babagana Monguno, National Security Adviser (NSA); Salihi Magashi, Minister of Defence; and Senator Ali Ndume, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Defence.

Also present were Lucky Irabor, Chief of Defence Staff; Isiaka Amao, Chief of the Air Staff; Sunday Adebayo, Chief of Defence Intelligence (CDI); Yusuf Bichi, Director-General of Department of State Services (DSS), and Usman Baba, Inspector-General of Police (IGP).

Yahaya was appointed as army chief following the demise of Ibrahim Attahiru, who died in a military plane crash on Friday, May 21 in Kaduna State.

Before his appointment, Yahaya was the theatre commander of Operation Hadin Kai, a counter-insurgency operation in the North-East region.

This is the second time Buhari is decorating a chief of army staff in 2021, the first was that of late Attahiru.