Former AGF, Bola Ajibola Dies Aged 89

A former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Bola Ajibola, has lost his life at the of 89.

A family source, who confirmed his death, said: “With very deep heart and gratitude to Almighty Allah, our Dad, Bola Ajibola, departed this world over the midnight. May Almighty Allah bless him with Aljanah Firdaus”.

Bola Ajibola was a Nigerian jurist and was Attorney-General and the Minister of Justice of Nigeria 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, NBA, from 1984 to 1985. He was also one of five Commissioners on the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission, organized through the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

He was a Prince from Owu and 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, specializing in Commercial Law and International Arbitration.
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.