Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

Muhammad Abu Ali (15 August 1980 – 4 November 2016) was a

Nigerian Army The Nigerian Army (NA) is the land force of the Nigerian Armed Forces. It is governed by the Nigerian Army Council (NAC). The Chief of Army Staff is the highest ranking military officer of the Nigerian Army. History Formation The Nigerian ...

officer who commanded the Army's 272 Tank Battalion. He was a prince to the people of Bassa Nge in Kogi state. He was killed in an ambush by

Boko Haram Boko Haram, officially known as ''Jamā'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād'' ( ar, جماعة أهل السنة للدعوة والجهاد, lit=Group of the People of Sunnah for Dawah and Jihad), is an Islamic terrorist organization ...

in Malam Fatori,

Borno State Borno State is a state in the North-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered by Yobe to the west, Gombe to the southwest, and Adamawa to the south while its eastern border forms part of the national border with Cameroon, its northern border ...

Early life and education

Ali graduated from Command Secondary School, Jos

Plateau State Plateau State is the twelfth-largest Nigerian state. It is in the centre of the country includes a range of hills surrounding the Jos Plateau, its capital, and the entire plateau itself. Plateau State is described as "The Home of Peace and To ...

Nigeria, in 1997 and was admitted to the

Nigerian Defence Academy The Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) is a military university based in Kaduna, Nigeria that trains officer cadets for commissioning into one of the three services of the Nigerian Armed Forces: the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. The duration of t ...

in 1998 as a member of the 50th Regular Course. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant into the Nigerian Army Armour Corps in September 2003. His father was Brigadier General Abu Ali, now the Etsu of Bassa-Nge Kingdom in

Kogi State Kogi State is a state in the North Central region of Nigeria, bordered to the west by the states of Ekiti and Kwara, to the north by the Federal Capital Territory, to the northeast by Nasarawa State, to the northwest by Niger State, to the s ...

Career

He participated in the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), United Missions in Darfur (UNMO), and received an accelerated promotion from the rank of Major to Lieutenant Colonel, receiving a gallantry award by the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General

Tukur Yusuf Buratai Tukur Yusuf Buratai (born 24 November 1960) is a retired Nigerian army lieutenant general, former Chief of Army Staff (appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari in July 2015), and Nigeria's Ambassador to the Republic of Benin. He was commissi ...

in September 2015.

Chief of Army Staff award for exceptional bravery

Ali received the Chief of Army Staff award in Gamboru for exceptional bravery from Lt Gen

on 9 September 2015, for his role in the fight against Boko Haram.

Death

Ali along with six other soldiers were ambushed and killed by

on 4 November 2016. He was buried on 7 November 2016, at the National Military Cemetery, Abuja.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ali, Muhammad Abu Nigerian Army officers Nigerian Defence Academy alumni 1980 births 2016 deaths Nigerian military personnel killed in action War-related deaths in Nigeria