Major General Abdullahi Mohammed (retd.), a former Chief of Staff to ex-Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Umaru Yar’Adua, is dead.
Mohammed, who hailed from Ilorin, Kwara State, reportedly died around 1 a.m. on Wednesday in Abuja at the age of 86.
Family sources confirmed the development to The PUNCH in Ilorin, describing his passing as a huge loss to the Ilorin Emirate, the nation, and the military community.
Born in 1939, the late General Mohammed attended the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, United Kingdom, and was commissioned into the Nigerian Army in 1958.
He rose through the ranks to become the Director of Military Intelligence and played a key role in the 1975 coup that toppled General Yakubu Gowon and brought General Murtala Mohammed to power.
Following the change of government, Mohammed was appointed Governor of Benue-Plateau State, serving from July 1975 to March 1976.
Under General Olusegun Obasanjo’s military administration, he became the Director-General of the National Security Organisation (NSO)—the precursor to today’s Department of State Services (DSS)—a position he held until 1979.
After his retirement that same year, he ventured into private business and became Managing Director of Atoto Press Limited, a notable printing company in Ilorin.
In 1998, General Mohammed was recalled to public service as National Security Adviser to then Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, a position he held until the transition to civilian rule in 1999.
At the advent of the Fourth Republic, he was appointed Chief of Staff to President Olusegun Obasanjo, a role he retained under President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua until his resignation in June 2008.
Throughout his career, Mohammed was widely regarded as a disciplined officer, an influential administrator, and a silent power broker in Nigeria’s political and security landscape.
Meanwhile, the Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU) has described the death of the retired General as a monumental loss to the Ilorin Emirate and Nigeria at large.
In a condolence statement issued by union’s National Publicity Secretary, Nurudeen Ibrahim, on behalf of the National President, Alhaji Abdulmumini Abdullahi, the IEDPU said the death of the elder statesman was “even more painful at this critical time when the nation needs the wisdom of tested patriots to navigate its challenges.”
The union praised the late Mohammed for his pioneering roles, noting that he was the first son of Ilorin to serve as a state governor and the first to attain the rank of a two-star General in the Nigerian Armed Forces.
