The death has occurred of a former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Richard Osuolale Abimbola Akinjide SAN.
He was aged 89 years.
Born in the city of Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State in the southwest of the country on November 4, 1930 to an influential family of warriors, Richard Akinjide attended Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife from where he passed out in Grade One (Distinction, Aggregate 6).
Richard Akinjide travelled to the UK in 1951 for his higher education and was called to the English Bar in 1955 and later in Nigeria. He established his practice of Akinjide & Co soon after.
He was a former minister of education in the government of Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa during the first republic and the minister for Justice in the administration of President Shehu Shagari in the second republic. 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 in 1978. He became the legal adviser for the party and was later appointed the Minister for Justice.
