9th April, 2023
Former judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Prince Bola Ajibola has died at the age of 89.
The former Attorney General and the Minister of Justice of Nigeria from 1985 to 1991, died on Saturday midnight after a long-time illness as a result of old age.
Ajibola’s eldest son, Segun, broke the news of his father’s demise in a statement on Sunday, saying “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.”
Ajibola was born on 22 March 1934. He was a Nigerian jurist. He was a Judge of the International Court of Justice from 1991 to 1994. He was president of the Nigerian Bar Association from 1984 to 1985. He was also one of five commissioners on the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, organized through the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
A Prince from Owu, 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.
Ajibola was chairman of the panel set up by the Plateau State government to probe the 2008 Jos riots. He established an Islamic and co-educational institution, Crescent University, in Nigeria in 2005, and he served as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Muslim Ummah of South West Nigeria (MUSWEN).
He was the High Commissioner of Nigeria to the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2002.