Second Republic Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Richard Akinjide, SAN, is dead.
He died at his Ibadan home in Oyo state at the age of 89.
Chief Akinjide, SAN, was one of the politicians of the pre-independence era, a First Republic parliamentarian and Minister of Education, and Second Republic Attorney General of the Federation.
He was born in Ibadan in 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).
He travelled to the United Kingdom 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.
Richard Akinjide is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
He also serves as a chieftain in the Olubadan of Ibadan’s court of clan nobles.
It was under his watch as Attorney General of the Federation, that Nigeria temporarily reversed executions of armed robbers.
The Abolition of a decree barring exiles from returning to the country. He was 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 country. The event also exposed some weaknesses within the West African economic community.
