Benjamin Adekunle Is Dead

Retired General Benjamin Adekunle, popularly known as the ‘Black Scorpion’ is dead.

Folake, his wife, said Adekunle died on Saturday morning in Lagos.

Born in June 1936 in Kaduna, Adekunle served in the Nigerian Army from 1958-1974. He served in the Congo crisis and the Nigeria civil war.

After the Nigeria civil war broke out, Adekunle was assigned the role of leading two new battalions (7th and 8th) – to conduct the historic sea borne assault on Bonny in the Bight of Benin on July 26, 1968.

At some point in the course of the war, he got the Army headquarters to upgrade the Lagos garrison, which he headed to a Brigade status through the creation of the 31 and 32 battalions.

This formation, combined with elements of the Lagos garrison along the eastern seaboard, was officially designated the 3 Infantry Division. But Adekunle went ahead to unofficially rename it the 3^rd Marine Commando in order to reflect the nature of the unique terrain in which the unit has had to operate.

Adekunle was unarguably one of the most controversial and mythologized figures in the history of the Nigerian civil war. He was 78.