*File picture of the late former AGF, Chief Akinjide in his legal regalia during his active practice days
Nigeria’s former Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Chief Richard Akinjide, is dead. He died aged 88 in his private Ibadan residence. Ibadan is the Oyo State capital, South-west Nigeria. The media gathered he died of complications from a protracted illness around 1:00a.m.
A family source told newsmen that the octogenarian died on Tuesday morning at his private Ibadan residence during a suspected age-related illness. Although the legal luminary had been ill for some time now apparently due to his age, it has nothing to do with the ravaging Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which is ravaging the globe.
Mr, Toye Akinrinlola, the Public Relations Officer of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, confirmed to newsmen that the late octogenarian was brought in dead at about 2:00a.m. on Tuesday. Akinjide, an Ibadan high chief, was born in Ibadan, in the early 1930s to an influential family of warriors. He 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 a Minister of Education in the first republic, under Alhaji 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.
While serving as the Attorney General of the Federation, Nigeria temporarily reversed the executions of armed robbers. He 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 land.
