Nigeria’s former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Bola Ajibola, is dead

Key highlights

• Prince Bola Ajibola died on Saturday midnight after a long time battle with illness due to old age.
• He was the Attorney General and Minister of Justice under the then military president, Ibrahim Babangida.
• He also served as a judge of the International Court of Justice, Hague, Netherlands.

A former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice under the Ibrahim Babangida administration, Prince Bola Ajibola, is dead.

Ajibola, who was also a former judge of the International Court of Justice, Hague, Netherlands, is reported to have died on Saturday midnight after a long-time illness due to old age.

This disclosure is contained in a statement issued by the eldest child of the late jurist, Segun Ajibola (SAN), on Sunday, April 9, 2023, in Abeokuta.

The respected legal icon, who founded Crescent University, Abeokuta, and once served as the President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), died at the age of 89.

What the family is saying

The statement from the eldest child partly reads,

• “With very deep heart and gratitude to Almighty Allah.
• “Our Dad, Prince Bola Ajibola, departed this world over midnight. May Almighty Allah bless him with Aljanah Firdaus.”

What you should know

• Bola Ajibola was a Nigerian jurist, he was the Attorney General and the Minister of Justice of Nigeria under the administration of the then military president, Ibrahim Babangida, from 1985 to 1991 and a Judge of the International Court of Justice from 1991 to 1994. He was president of the Nigerian Bar Association from 1984 to 1985 and was also one of five commissioners on the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, organized through the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
• Ajibola, who is a prince from Owu, was born on March 22, 1934, in Owu, near Abeokuta, Colonial Nigeria, to the Owu royal family of Oba Abdul-Salam Ajibola Gbadela II, who was the traditional ruler of Owu between 1949 and 1972.
• Ajibola attended both Owu Baptist Day School and Baptist Boys’ High School in Abeokuta between 1942 and 1955. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in Law (LL.B) at the Holborn College of Law, University of London between 1959 and 1962 and was called to the English Bar at the Lincoln’s Inn in 1962. He returned to Nigeria to practice Law, specialising in Commercial Law and International Arbitration.
• He was the High Commissioner of Nigeria to the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2002 and was married to Olufunmilayo Janet Abeni Ajibola, who died in London on June 8, 2016.

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