COVID-19: Nasir Ajanah, Chief Judge Of Kogi State, Is Dead

Late Justice Ajanah


News reaching our newsroom has it that Justice Nasir Ajanah died at the Coronavirus (COVID-19) isolation centre in Gwagwalada, Abuja. His death came less than two weeks after an aide to Yahaya Bello, the state governor, also died in an Abuja hospital.

Although the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has so far announced three cases of COVID-19 in Kogi, the state government has insisted the state is free of the disease. The state has continually accused the NCDC of falsifying COVID-19 cases in Kogi.

Ajanah, we learnt died a week after the passing of Ibrahim Shaibu Atadoga, the president of the Kogi customary court of appeal in Kogi state. In a statement issued by the Kogi State government, which did not mention the cause of his death said, “The Kogi State Government wishes to announce the demise of Hon. Justice Nasir Ajanah. Until his death, Nasir Ajanah was the Chief Judge of Kogi State. The passing of the legal luminary is a massive blow to the Government and people of Kogi State for his brilliant justice administration throughout his career as a Judge and his tenure as the Chief Judge of Kogi State,” he said.

“He will be sorely missed for his tenacity of purpose and outstanding commitment to the sanctity of the temple of justice. He was a colossus in the noble profession of law. The State Government will work with the family of the late Chief Justice to give him a befitting burial. His shoes will be impossible to fill.”

Ajanah was born in 1956 to the family of MJ Fari Ajanah in Okene local government area. He studied law at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and was called to the Nigerian bar as a barrister and solicitor of the supreme court. Ajanah later set up his private firm, Nasiru Ajanah & Co in Okene, where he practised law between 1985 and 1989.

He served in various capacities such as chairman, Kabba disturbance tribunal, Kogi, (1994); chairman, election petitions tribunal in Adamawa state (1998); member of governing council of Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (1999 and 2006) and chairman, panel on Murtala Mohammed international airport fire incident (2000).

Ajanah, whose remains will be buried in Abuja on Sunday, served as chairman, election petitions tribunal in Akwa Ibom state (2007) and chairman, election tribunal petitions in Rivers state (2008).

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