JUST IN: Guterres appoints Nigerian Lt. General Obiakor as chair of Syria probe

Lt. General Chikadibia Obiakor

Lt. General Chikadibia Obiakor

Lt. General Chikadibia Obiakor

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has selected a retired Nigerian Lieutenant general, Chikadibia Obiakor to lead a U.N. Board of Inquiry to investigate a series of attacks on hospitals in Syria’s last opposition stronghold in the northwest.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced Friday that the three-member board, will start work on Sept. 30.

The other two members are Janet Lim of Singapore and Maria Santos Pais of Portugal.

Dujarric said the board will ascertain the facts of the attacks and not assess blame. Its findings will not be made public, he said.

Lieutenant General Obiakor, who retired in 2011 is former Military Adviser for Peacekeeping Operations and former Force Commander of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

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Obiakor joined the Nigerian Army in 1973.

He served as the General Officer Commanding, Second Mechanized Division, of the Nigerian Army, as Commander of the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) Artillery Brigade in Liberia in 1996 and 1997, and as ECOMOG Chief Coordinator of the Liberian elections in July 1997.

He has also served as Chief of Administration of the Nigerian Army, with responsibility for the welfare, discipline and medical services for all Nigerian military personnel.

Born on 18 February 1951, Lieutenant General Obiakor is a graduate of the National War College in Abuja. He holds a Master of Science degree in strategic studies from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, and has participated in numerous international military courses.

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