Rose Onda
Rear Admiral Ndubisi Kanu, 78, former military Administrator Imo and Lagos States is dead.
He died this morning in a Lagos hospital of COVID-19 complications.
Kalu Ireke Kalu from Abia State, who worked closely with him in the Ndigbo office in Victoria Island Lagos, where the deceased’s office is also located, confirmed his death today, January 13.
“I can tell you he passed this morning. He was 78. We celebrated his last birthday in November 2020. I don’t have much details. I am still in the village,” said Kalu, who contested for the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Secretary-Generalship on January 10, in Owerri, Imo State.
DgovScoops gathered that he was home during the Christmas season for the introduction ceremony of his daughter who was getting married to a man (both of them from abroad). Had mild cough then and his condition deteriorated suddenly. Had to quickly fly back to Lagos where Covid-19 infection was diagnosed and placed on intensive care with oxygen.
In 1975, Kanu was the only Igbo that was appointed into the Supreme Military Council, SMC, before General Olusegun Obasanjo dissolved it when he assumed office in 1976 as the Head of State.
He fought on the Biafran side during the civil war but was reabsorbed into the Nigerian military at the end of the war in 1970.
Kalu, a retired warrior-at-sea, who occupied many command and political offices as part of his military postings, quickly civilianized himself when he retired from service. He was a member of the pro-democracy group, the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, which fought for the revalidation of the late Moshood Abiola’s annulled June 12, 1993, presidential mandate.
He was among those, who signed an ultimatum for the General Sani Abacha regime to revalidate Abiola’s mandate and hand over power to him, which brought about one of the most vicious crackdowns by a regime in peacetime Nigeria.
He was the chairman of NADECO’s Action Committee, which organized and participated in protest marches and public sensitization activities.
