Tuesday 18 December 2012

This  the last  picture i  took   of  the  late General Andrew Owoye Azazi   ,  the  Nigeria national  security  advisor, an officer and gentleman who served the nation to the best of his ability, he still felt he had to join other political associates at the burial ceremony,where he  died  in a  tragic  helicopter  accident.Five minutes into the return flight, the military helicopter exploded in the skies as it came down in flames, killing all the six persons on board, including Yakowa, Azazi, their aides and pilots.

OWOYE ANDREW AZAZI was born at Peretorugbene, now in Bayelsa State on February 1, 1952. He attended Government College, Bomadi, in the old Bendel State, from where he graduated in 1968.
He joined the Nigerian Defence Academy, Regular Combatant Cadet- Course 12 on July 3, 1972 and was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on December 14, 1974.
The General held an MSc in Strategic Studies from the University of Ibadan.  He also completed the Staff Intelligence and Security Course, School of Service Intelligence, Ashford, Kent, United Kingdom, and Combined Strategic Intelligence Training Programme, Defence Intelligence College, Washington DC, United States.
He was a graduate of the Command and Staff College, Nigeria, and the National War College, Nigeria, where he won the President and Commander-in-Chief’s merit award for best all round performance.
Azazi was said to have had one of the fastest growing military careers for wearing the ranks of Major-General, Lieutenant-General and General between May, 2006 and June, 2007.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo made him the Chief of Army Staff in 2006 and later Chief of Defence Staff.
On August 20, 2008, late President Umaru Yar’Adua replaced Azazi with Air Chief Marshal Paul Dike as CDS and announced Azazi’s retirement from military service.
President Goodluck Jonathan later appointed him as National Security Adviser on October 4, 2010 and sacked him in June 22, 2012.
He was married and had five children, a granddaughter and two grandsons