Joseph Akahan

Joseph Akahan (12 April 1937 – May 1968) born Joseph Akaahan Agbo, was a Nigerian military officer and Chief of Army Staff from May 1967 until May 1968, when he was killed in a helicopter crash during the Nigerian Civil War.

Birth and education

Akahan was born on 12 April 1937 in Gboko Local Government Area of Benue State. He attended Government College Keffi where he obtained his Cambridge School Certificate (1952–1956). He trained as an officer cadet at the RWAFF Training School Teshi, Ghana (1957–1958) and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, United Kingdom (1958–1960). He was commissed on 23 July 1960.

Military career Akahan served with the Nigerian Contingent during the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations in Congo. Akahan was one of the leaders of the Nigerian counter-coup of 1966 in which Aguiyi-Ironsi was killed and replaced General Yakubu Gowon, and in which there was a mass slaughter of Igbo officers at 4th Battalion in Ibadan under Akahan's command. Following the coup he said there would be no more killing by Northern soldiers "since events had now balanced out".

Akahan was appointed Chief of Army Staff in May 1967 shortly before the outbreak of the Nigerian Civil War. Joe Akahan Barracks is named after him, located in Makurdi, capital of his home state (Benue) and an early base of operations during the civil war.