Garba Duba, Nigerian Army General Who Participated In 1966 Counter-coup, Dies At 82

 


A former Nigerian Army general, who at different times served as military administrator of Sokoto and Bauchi states, Garba Duba, is dead.


The general, who hailed from Niger State, died at 82.


Former senator for Kaduna Central District, Shehu Sani, announced Mr Duba’s death in a Facebook post on Friday.


Mr Sani further explained that the retired lieutenant-general; died on Friday and his remains were interred at Gudu Cemetery in Abuja.


He served as military governor of Bauchi State under the Olusegun Obasanjo military regime between 1978 and 1979 and military administrator of Sokoto State under Muhammadu Buhari’s regime from 1984 to August 1985.


Mr Duba, as a young officer, participated in the counter-coup of 1966 in which Nigeria’s first military Head of State, Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, was killed.


Who is Garba Duba?

He joined the army as a cadet officer at the Nigerian Military Training College, Zaria in 1962 as a coursemate of Ibrahim Babangida, who overthrew Mr Buhari in 1985. Mr Duba was also trained at the Indian Military Academy.


During the Nigerian Civil War, he was a Captain and commanded an armoured unit.


According to a report Mr Duba during his tenure as military governor of Bauchi, Steyr Nigeria Limited, a tractor manufacturing company, was founded. He also established the Bauchi State Polytechnic, using one of the teachers’ colleges as a campus while the rector used the administrator’s Brigade Commander’s guest house as accommodation and other army formations for offices.


Under Mr Duba, some Teacher Training Colleges and School of Basic Studies were established in Bauchi. He later served as Commander, 2nd Mechanised Division between 1987 and 1988) as well as Commander, 3rd Armoured Division and Commandant, Nigerian Defence Academy between 1990 and 1992.


In 1993, he retired from the army and went into private businesses where he held positions like chairman, New Nigerian Development Company (NNDC); chairman, SGI Nigeria Limited; director, First Bank of Nigeria; non-executive director, Honeywell Flour Mills Plc and chairman, board of Leadway Pension Fund.


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