Richard Akinjide, former Attorney General and minister of justice is dead.
The 88-year-old legal luminary died in the early hours on Tuesday in his Ibadan residence, the Oyo State capital. He was said to have been sick for about three years.
He was brought to the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, at about 2:00 am dead, according to the Head, Public Relations Unit of the Toye Akinrinlola.
His remains have been deposited at the hospital’s morgue.
Born in Ibadan, in the early 1930s, Akinjide, an Ibadan high chief, attended Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife in Osun State and passed out with a distinction (Aggregate 6).
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria proceeded on his educational journey to the United Kingdom in 1951 and was called to the English Bar in 1955.
He was later called to the Nigerian Bar and established Akinjide and Co., a legal firm.
He was Minister of Education in the first republic, under Tafawa Balewa and Minister of Justice in the second republic, during the administration of former President Shehu Shagari.
Akinjide was a member of the judicial systems sub-committee of the Constitutional Drafting Committee of 1975-1977 and later joined the National Party of Nigeria in 1978, and became the legal adviser to the party.
