The Second Republic Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Chief Richard Akinjide, is dead.
He reportedly died in the early hours of Tuesday morning at the University College Hospital, aged 88.
According to a source close to the family, the body of the legal luminary has been deposited at a morgue.
Born in Ibadan, Oyo State, in the early 1930s, Akinjide attended Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife, where he earned Grade One (Distinction, Aggregate 6).
He travelled to the United Kingdom in 1951 for his higher education and was called to the English Bar in 1955 and later to the Nigerian Bar. He established his law firm, Akinjide & Co soon after.
The frontline Yoruba leader was a Minister of Education in the first republic, during the government of Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa and Minister for Justice in the second republic, during the administration of President Shehu Shagari.
He 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 (NPN) in 1978. He became the legal adviser for the party and was later appointed the Minister for Justice.
The late Akinjide also served as a chieftain in the Olubadan of Ibadan’s court of
He was a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic (PDP).