General Malu, Nigeria’s Former Chief of Army Staff Is Dead

General Victor Malu, a former Nigerian Chief of Army Staff is dead.

Malu, according to reports died in a Cairo hospital in Egypt on Sunday.

Malu chaired the tribunal that tried General Oladipo Diya and other officers for attempting to overthrow the Sani Abacha regime in 1997.

He was the commander of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) peace-keeping force ECOMOG from December 1996 to April 1998 during the First Liberian Civil War.



As commander of ECOMOG, Malu was credited with good performance, by Liberians and international observers as he was able to claim that Liberia was completely cleared of land mines.

But he fell out with Liberian President Charles Taylor, who in April 1998 accused him of trying to run a parallel government and this led to his replacement.

Malu was appointed Chief of Army Staff in May 1999 at the start of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration and was dismissed in April 2001.

The former Army chief was awarded Force Service Star (FSS) Award, Meritorious Service Star (MSS) Award, and Distinguished Service Star (DSS) Award.

In September 2008 Malu, a diabetic, went into a coma and was rushed to Lagos University Teaching Hospital where he was placed on life support in the intensive care unit.

Later he was transferred to a hospital in London, and after treatment for stroke was discharged from hospital to his Central London home in April 2009.