Idowu Isamotu
A former Chief of Staff to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Abdullahi Mohammed, is dead.
He was 86 years old.
Sources told Daily Trust that Mohammed, a retired Major-General, who was the former Chief of Staff to Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, died at about 1:00am Wednesday morning.
Family members, allies, associates and military officers familiar with the antecedents of the late General, described his death as a huge loss to Ilorin, the nation and the Nigerian Armed Forces.
The burial arrangements for the retired senior military officer, according to family sources, will be announced later in the day in line with Islamic rites.
“Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un. We lost Gen. Abdullah Muhammad Adangba (Atoto) around 1 a.m. today (Wednesday).
“May Allah forgive his shortcomings, console us and his family, and grant him Aljannah. Ameen ya Rabb,” a relative said in a message announcing his passage.
The late senior military officer, who was popularly known as Atoto, was born in Ilorin, Kwara State, in 1939.
He attended the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, in the United Kingdom, and was commissioned into the Nigerian Army in 1958.
Mohammed rose through the ranks to become Director of Military Intelligence and played a notable role in the 1975 coup that ousted General Yakubu Gowon and brought Murtala Mohammed to power.
Following the change of government, he was appointed Governor of Benue-Plateau State, a position he held from July 1975 to March 1976.
In March 1976, under General Olusegun Obasanjo’s military administration, he was appointed Director-General of the National Security Organisation (NSO), the forerunner of the present Department of State Services (DSS), a post he held until 1979.
After his retirement from the army that same year, he ventured into private business, becoming Managing Director of Atoto Press Limited in Ilorin.
In 1998, the late General was recalled to public service when he was appointed National Security Adviser by then Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, a role he held until May 1999.
At the return of civilian rule, he was appointed Chief of Staff to President Olusegun Obasanjo, a position he retained under President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua until his resignation in June 2008.
Throughout his career, he was regarded as a disciplined officer, a trusted aide, and a silent power broker in Nigeria’s political and security landscape.
