Nigeria’s oldest war veteran, Private Aduku dies at 101

Pa Adama Aduku, the old soldier who stole the show at the 2019, Nigerian Army Day Celebrations (NADCEL), held in Lagos is dead.

Aduku, who was presented with an award of excellence by Vice President Yemi Osibajo, given to him by the Nigerian army, was said to have died yesterday, December 31, 2019.

His death was announced by one of his relations on the Whatsapp platform of the Director Defence Information Defence Headquarters news platform early this morning.

Born 1918, to a peasant farmer at Abejukolo-Ife, at Omaha Local Government Area of Kogi State, Aduku joined the army in 1945.

The old man who was the Centre of attraction, told the Punch News in an interview that he was still very strong in bed strong in bed at his age.

The old soldier who said he never planned to join the army however had a change of mind when one day he met a young man beat their local chief.

“I was coming back from the farm one evening when I saw a man who was younger than me at the time beating our village head,” Aduku recalled with nostalgia as he shared his life’s story with our correspondent earlier in the week during an encounter. “The man named Salikawa was a soldier who resorted to beating up our chief for refusing to carry his bag and seeing him off to his house, which was 10 miles away.

“When the matter was reported to the District Officer, the chief was advised to obey the soldier in his own interest or face whatever consequences that resulted from that.

“I was very angry and bitter and I made up my mind to join the military so that I could go back to the village and also beat up Salikawa for humiliating our chief. He told Punch in an interview.