The Nigerian army has awarded a contract to the Defence Industries Cooperation of Nigeria (DICON) for 52 Ezugwu Mine Resistance and Ambush Protected (MRAP) which would be supplied between June and July this year, Lionel Ekene reports in Military Africa.
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Variant of the Ezugwu MRAP designed and produced by DICON/NAVMC (Picture source: Twitter account Jakepor21)

Director-General of The Defence Industries Cooperation of Nigeria (DICON), Major General Victor Ezugwu on Wednesday, 6 January, made this known during a three-day retreat organized for management staff of DICON in Kaduna.

In a speech during the event, Major General Victor Ezugwu pledged the readiness of the industry to redouble its efforts in the production of military equipment and arms to further strengthen the ongoing war against terrorism and other forms of insecurity the country is faced with.

”… This year, we are hoping to test the equipment and by the time they pass the field trial test, we will commence mass production. “We are having feedbacks on the vehicle we rolled out for field operations, so far, we have worked on the mine resistance capacity of the ‘Ezugwu MRAP’.

This MRAP APC is named named after Major General Victor Ezugwu, who earned recognition for his efforts to combat Boko Haram extremists. At the end of 2018, he was appointed Managing Director/CEO of DICON.

The Ezugwu is manufactured in collaboration with the Nigerian Army's Command Engineering Depot (CED). It is believed the Ezugwu was designed on a Tatra 4×4 chassis, according to African Military Blog. The Nigerian Army apparently plans to acquire a total of 130 Ezugwus. The vehicle is powered by a Chinese WD615 turbodiesel engine. Its flat-bottom armored hull provides protection against small arms fire and an explosion of 7 kg TNT, whilst each wheel can withstand a 12 kg TNT explosion.

The Ezugwu Mine Resistance and Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle was first unveiled in September 2019, built by DICON in collaboration with Command Engineering Depot (CED). The Nigerian Army initially ordered 28 examples of this first variant in November 2019.

Since then, the Ezugwu MRAP has undergone several upgrades and changes. The latest iteration of the vehicle was unveiled at the EXPO 2020 organized by the Federal Ministry of science and technology in Abuja : the new version of the Ezugwu MRAP appears taller than the previous one. It still retains its double turret arrangement. A 360-degree day camera is mounted on the hull of the new variant for use during reconnaissance missions.