Breaking: Popular Nigerian Lawyer Richard Akinjide Dies

Popular Nigerian lawyer Richard Akinjide has passed away.

Naija News reports that Senator Babafemi Ojudu announced the death of the famous legal Luminary and Minister for Justice in the government of Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa on Social media network, Facebook on Tuesday, April 21.

“Richard Akinjide (SAN) politician, former minister just passed on. RIP,” Senator Ojudu wrote on his Facebook page.

Akinjide died at age 88 in the early hours of today, Tuesday, April 21 at the University College Hospital in Ibadan, Oyo State, southwest Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the deceased was a former minister of education in the government of Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa during the first republic and the minister for Justice in the administration of President Shehu Shagari in the second republic.

The deceased travelled to the UK in 1951 for his higher education and was called to the English Bar in 1955 and later in Nigeria. He established his practice of Akinjide & Co soon after. He also served as a chieftain in the Olubadan of Ibadan’s court of clan nobles.

Late Akinjide who was a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), 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 was later appointed the Minister for Justice.

Under his watch as Attorney General, Nigeria temporarily reversed executions of armed robbers. The Abolition of a decree barring exiles from returning to the country. Akinjide was the lead prosecutor in the treason trial of Bukar Zanna Mandara. The eviction of many illegal foreign nationals from Nigeria which contributed to mild violence against some foreigners in the country, an event which also exposed some weaknesses within the West African economic community.