Prince Bola Ajibola, a former Judge of the International Court of Justice, Hague, Netherlands, died Saturday night after a long-time old age-induced illness.
Aged 89, his death was disclosed by his eldest child, Mr. Segun Ajibola, in a statement on Sunday in Abeokuta and will be buried later today in accordance with Islamic rites.
His son, Segun, while announcing his death, said, “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.”
The respected jurist was the president of the Nigerian Bar Association between 1984 and 1985 and was later appointed Nigeria’s Attorney General and the Minister of Justice from 1985 to 1991 during the Babangida regime.
Prince Ajibola served as a Judge of the International Court of Justice from 1991 to 1994 and was the High Commissioner of Nigeria to the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2002.
He was also one of the five commissioners on the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, set up by the Permanent Court of Arbitration as well as chairman of the panel set up by the Plateau State Government to investigate the 2008 Jos riots.
In 2005, he established Crescent University, an Islamic and co-educational institution and served as its chancellor for several years.
An Owu Prince, Ajibola, was born on March 22, 1934, in Owu, near Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital to the royal family of Oba Abdul-Salam Ajibola Gbadela II.
He attended Owu Baptist Day School and Baptist Boys’ High School in Abeokuta between 1942 and 1955, and obtained his bachelor’s degree in Law at the Holborn College of Law, University of London, between 1959 and 1962.
Ajibola was called to the English Bar at the Lincoln’s Inn in 1962 but also came back to Nigeria to practice.
