Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan

A former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN), is dead.

The father of former Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Oloye Jumoke Akinjide, according to a family source, breathed his last at the age of 88 at about 1 am on Tuesday, April 21st, at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.

Akinjide served as Minister of Justice during the administration of Alhaji Shehu Shagari of National Party of Nigeria (NPN) from 1979 to 1983 in the Second Republic. Prior to the time, he had also served as Minister of Education in the First Republic in the government of a former Prime Minister of Nigeria, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa.

He was a member of the judicial systems sub-committee of the Constitutional Drafting Committee of 1975-1977 and later joined the NPN in 1978, and in the same year, he became the legal adviser for the party.

Akinjide was born in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State in the early 1930s. Akinjide was a student at Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife before he travelled to the United Kingdom in 1951 for his higher education. He was called to the English Bar in 1955 and later in Nigeria. He also established his law chambers, Akinjide & Co thereafter.

Meanwhile, the Olugbon of Orile-Igbon, Ogbomosho Zone, Oyo State, Oba Francis Olushola Alao, has described the death of the legal luminary as a great loss to the Akinjide’s family, Oyo State and Nigeria as a whole.

Akinjide, according to the monarch, was one of the greatest brains in the law profession, saying “I will qualify Chief Akinjide as law technocrat and revered elder statesman. He was from Olugbon dynasty during our last conversation. ‘Omo Olugbon Agbe’ Adeu !!!’ May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace.

“He will be greatly missed. Almighty will console, comfort and preserve all that he left behind, most importantly his entire family. ”

In the same vein, a former Minister of Aviation and a trained lawyer, Mr Femi Fani-Kayode, also posted on his verified Twitter handle: @realFFK: “Our father, Chief Richard Akinjide, Minister of Education in the 1st Republic, Minister of Justice in the 2nd Republic, great nationalist and elder statesman has passed on. We loved and revered him. My prayers are with his family,” adding that both the South West and Nigeria as a whole lost a great son