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| Late Chief Richard Akinjide. |
Elder statesman
and frontline first and second republic politician, Chief Abimbola Osuolale
Richard Akinjide a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN is dead.
The legal luminary
and former minister of justice and attorney-general of the federation died in
his home in Ibadan, Oyo State.
According to
sources Chief Akinjide who has been battling with illness for some time now died
this morning at about 1 a.m.
Born 88 years ago
in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital in the early 1930s to a prominent family the
Ibadan high chief attended Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife from where he passed out with
a distinction, Aggregate 6.
The notable Yoruba leader served as Minister of Education in the first republic, during the government of Prime Minister, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa and Minister for Justice in the second republic, during the administration of President Shehu Shagari, and played a prominent role in the controversial 12 2/3 constitutional the battle involving late Chief Obafemi Awolowo and former President Shagari.
He 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. He became the legal adviser for the party and later the justice minister.
The late Akinjide will be remembered for serving serves as a chieftain in the Olubadan of Ibadan’s court of clan nobles. Under him as Attorney General, Nigeria temporarily reversed executions of armed robbers, as well as the Abolition of a decree barring exiles from returning to the country.
He will be remembered as the lead prosecutor in the treason trial of Bukar Zanna Mandara, and the eviction of many illegal foreign nationals from Nigeria
Until his death today, Chief Akinjide was a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic (PDP).
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