Richard Akinjide, ex-justice Minister dies at 88

Nigeria’s Second Republic Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Chief Richard Akinjide, is dead.

He was 88. He died in his Ibadan, Oyo State, home early today.

Mr Toye Akinrilola, spokesman of the UCH, said his body was brought to the morgue at about 2 am today.

Akinjide, a reputable lawyer and senior advocate, played a prominent part in Nigeria’s politics in the first and second republics.

He was the Minister of Education in the First Republic and a member of the Constitutional Drafting Committee between 1975-1977.

When the Second Republic politics began in 1978, he joined the National Party of Nigeria.

He served as the legal adviser for the NPN and was rewarded with the post of Justice Minister.

Akinjide was born in Ibadan on 4 November 1931.

He was educated at Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife. He left Nigeria in 1951 to read law and was called to the English Bar in 1955.