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Ola Ajayi – Ibadan

Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN) a legal luminary and a former Attorney General and Minister of Justice is dead. He died at the ripe age of 88.

The legal icon died around 1 am Tuesday.

According to Alhaji Adediran Ibrahim Ademola, who was with him till his last moment told Vanguard that   Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN), breathed his last after a brief illness which, he said, lasted about a week.

“Yes, Chief Richard Akinjide died in the middle of the night. I’m confirming that Chief Akinjide is no more.

I was with him till around 6:30 in the evening yesterday. He ate his lunch and went to bed.

“But, in the middle of the night, he developed complications and was rushed to the University College Hospital, Ibadan. But he was confirmed dead on arrival.”

On his last moment, he said the deceased only told him to prune the trees in his expansive compound.

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The first caller at his Idi-Ishin residence, Chief Taiye Ayorinde, Baale of Ekotedo said he received the news of his death with a great shock even though he attained the ripe age of 88.

He said: “You came, you saw, you conquered. You made history in this country as a legal luminary.”

“As an Ibadan man, you made Ibadan proud; as a traditionalist, you made your mark.”

Dr Kunle Olajide, Secretary-General of Yoruba Council of Elders, (YCE), said it received the demise of Chief Richard Akinjide with sadness and shock.

In a statement, YCE noted that Akinjide was a brilliant intellectual, lawyer and a patriot who was one of the founding fathers of Nigeria.

Olajide said: “The legal luminary, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) was a founding member of the Yoruba Council of Elders. He was in the good and able company of very distinguished Nigerian Patriot. Yeyeoba Chief Mrs HID Awolowo, Archdeacon Emmanuel Alayande and eminent jurist and author, Justice Adewale Thompson all of blessed memories. Baba Alayande at over 90 years was the founding President.  Yeyeoba  Awolowo was the Matron and Justice Thompson was the Secretary-General. My humble self was the Assistant Secretary-General.

“Chief Akinjide was very passionate about the primary goal of the organisation and still remains the protection and promotion of Yoruba interest in a United progressive Federal Republic of Nigeria until his death. He remained committed to the  Council’s goal.”

“Chief Akinjide was a very successful politician who began his career as a member of the Federal Parliament at the age of 27.”

“He was a successful legal practitioner at that time. He later became Federal Minister of Education where he would always be remembered for righting the wrongs and reversing the injustice of the Federal Scholarship Awards at that time in 1965.

“He demonstrated courage and confidence in making merit the basis of the scholarship awards. Later in the Second Republic, he was Attorney General and Minister of Justice in Alhaji Shehu Shagari’s Governnment.

“He is more remembered by most Nigerians for his role in propounding the 12 2/3 theory.

“The sole basis of dismissing Chief Obafemi  Awolowo’s efforts in the Supreme Court to nullify Shehu Shagari’s election. Chief Akinjide was a brilliant intellectual, successful Attorney General, a patriotic Nigerian and a family man. He left indelible footprints in the sand of time.

“He will long be remembered as one of the founding fathers of the Nigerian nation.

Oba Francis Olushola Alao HRM. The Olugbon Of Orile Igbon, Vice Chairman, Oyo State Obas Council and Chiefs, Oyo State said,

“What a great loss to the Akinjide’s family, Oyo State and Nigeria as a whole. One of the greatest brain in the law profession. I will qualify Chief Akinjide as law technocrat and revered elder statesman. He was from Olugbon dynasty during our last conversation. ”

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.

Afenifere speaks

The pan-Yoruba Socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Mr Yinka Odumakun, said: “The bell has tolled for Chief Richard Akinjide after a full length. We pray that God will grant his soul eternal repose and protect the family he has left behind. He would always be renembered as a brilliant attorney with a forensic knowledge of the law. He has played his part in this game of life and may he get all the rest that he needs and deserves. Good night from all of us in Afenifere.”

Vanguard