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<\/p>\nThe Nigerian Army has officially denied viral reports claiming that Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, the Chief of Army Staff, has passed away.<\/p>\n
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The rumor gained traction following a tweet by Jackson Ude, a former presidential aide and social media commentator, who alleged that Lagbaja died from stage three cancer in an undisclosed hospital abroad. Ude\u2019s tweet, which quickly spread across social media, stated:<\/p>\n
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“CHIEF OF ARMY STAFF DIES OF CANCER. The Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, has died. Lagbaja died in an undisclosed hospital overseas nearly 48hrs ago from a stage three cancer, according to a senior Government official. The death has been kept secret due to intense lobbying by some Generals seeking to take over his position. Lagbaja, born on February 28, 1968, in Ilobu, Osun State, was appointed by President Bola Tinubu in June 2023 as the 27th Chief of Army Staff.”<\/p>\n
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In response, the Nigerian Army took to X (formerly Twitter) to label the report as FAKE NEWS.<\/p>\n
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Onyema Nwachukwu, Army spokesperson and Major General, dismissed the claims on Saturday, clarifying that Lagbaja is on official leave and that the Army\u2019s operations remain unaffected. Nwachukwu emphasized that Major General Abdulsalami Ibrahim, the Chief of Policy and Plans (Army), is acting in Lagbaja\u2019s stead during his absence.<\/p>\n
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“There have been rumors suggesting a leadership vacuum and confusion among officers, but nothing could be further from the truth,” Nwachukwu said. He stressed that the Army is a well-structured institution with clear protocols in place for different situations.<\/p>\n
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He further added, “Before proceeding on leave, the COAS ensured that all necessary arrangements were made for Major General Abdulsalami Ibrahim to act on his behalf. The Nigerian Army has dealt with situations in the past where service chiefs were away for extended periods, and operations continued seamlessly under their deputies.”<\/p>\n
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Nwachukwu reaffirmed that the Army\u2019s routine and scheduled activities are ongoing as planned, with departmental heads carrying out their responsibilities in line with the directives of the Chief of Army Staff.<\/p>\n
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The Army\u2019s swift rebuttal seeks to quell speculation and reassure the public that operations remain stable despite the temporary absence of its top officer.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Nigerian Army has officially denied viral reports claiming that Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, the Chief of Army Staff, has passed away. The rumor gained traction following a tweet by Jackson Ude, a former presidential aide and social media commentator, who alleged that Lagbaja died from stage three cancer in an undisclosed hospital abroad. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":52861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52863,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52853\/revisions\/52863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}