No fewer than 421 top officers of the Nigerian Army have bagged promotion to new ranks, including Ahmed Ibrahim Taiwo, the officer who testified at the Lagos Judicial Panel of Inquiry probing the Lekki shooting and other cases of police brutality.
Details of the promotion were contained in a Nigerian Army memo signed by GAT Ochigbano, a major general.
Taiwo was a brigadier-general until his recent promotion to the rank of major-general.
However, he is – alongside other newly promoted officers – barred from using the new rank until formally decorated.
The Heritage Times had reported how Taiwo testimony before the Lagos Judicial Panel of Inquiry fueled controversies regarding what transpired on the night of October 20th at the Lekki toll gate plaza.
He told the panel that a portion of the troops that operated at the toll gate on that night were indeed armed with live bullets, but maintained that only blank bullets were shot into the air.
The newly-promoted officer also revealed that soldiers registered presence at the toll gate after been invited by Lags state governor, Sanwo-Olu.