The pioneer General Staff Officer of the Nigerian Army, Col Patrick Anwunah, is dead. He died at the age of 87.
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The late Anwunah, a lawyer and an Anglican Knight of The Good Shepherd, who hailed from Awka, Anambra State, died on Friday, September 16.
He, according to a press statement released by his second son, Chike Anwunah, on behalf of the family, was also the Quartermaster General and Chief of Logistics, the defunct Biafran Army.
Giving a brief background of the octogenarian, the family said: “Born at Awka in the former Eastern Region, Patrick Anwunah attended Government College, Umuahia 1948-1954 and directly from school, was enrolled as an Officer Cadet.
“Upon his graduation from the Eaton Hall Officer Cadet School, Chester, England, Col. Anwunah proceeded to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, England, and was commissioned in 1956 in the Nigerian Army as a Second Lieutenant as N19.
“He subsequently became the General Staff Officer 1 in the Nigerian Army Headquarters where he played a major role in halting the January 1966 coup.
“The crisis of 1966 compelled him to come home to join in the defence of his people in the Nigeria Biafra war. In Biafra he would later become the Quartermaster General and Chief of Logistics at the Biafran Defence Headquarters.
“He was a member of the delegation that went to Lagos in 1970 to sign the peace accord that ended the Nigerian civil war.”
The family said the funeral arrangements would be made known later. (Daily Sun)
