Justice Akanbi dies at 85, to be buried Sunday
The DEFENDER Newspaper (Online) family has also described the death of fallen Muslim leader, judiciary and anti-corruption czar as having created a vacuum that may take time to fill. “But what do we do when Allah has decided to take His servant who has done well unto His own presence where death will and effort will be no more? Our only prayer is and should be that Allah please forgive, purify his gentle soul, admit Baba and repose him in Al-Jannah,” the online newspaper management said in a statement signed in Lagos on Sunday on behalf of its President, AIG Mu’azu Idris Hadejia (Rtd).
Pioneer Chairman of Nigeria’s Independent Corruption and other Practices Commission (ICPC), Justice Mustapha Akanbi is dead.
He died at the age of 85 and will be buried on Sunday at his country home of Ilorin, Kwara State.
One of the children of the late Judge, Dr. Usman Akanbi, confirmed the burial in Ilorin in the early hours of Sunday.
He said the pioneer ICPC chairman, died around 1:00 a.m on Sunday and that he will be buried according to Islamic rites on Sunday afternoon.
Born on September 11, 1932, in Accra, Ghana, Justice Akanbi, was appointed the ICPC chairman by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2000 and served until 2005.
He obtained a scholarship to study law at the Institute of Administration, now Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
He then moved on for further legal studies in the United Kingdom after which he was called to the English Bar in 1963, and was called to the Nigerian Bar in January 1964.
He joined the Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Justice and became a Senior State Counsel in 1968.
In 1969 he set up a private practice in Kano. In 1974 he was appointed a judge of the Federal Revenue Court, and in January 1977 he was elevated to the Court of Appeal Bench.
In 1992 he was made President of the Nigerian Court of Appeal, a position he held until retiring in 1999.
In the meantime, the death of Justice Mustapha, described as devout Muslim man to the core, has been described as a great loss to the Nigerian nation and particularly the Nigerian Muslim Community headed by the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General, Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III.
The people of Kwara State particularly the Emirate of Ilorin and the entire Judiciary of the Federal Republic of Nigeria would also greatly miss the legal juggernaut that was useful to the arm of government until he had his last breathe.
The DEFENDER Newspaper (Online) family has also described the death of fallen Muslim leader, judiciary and anti-corruption czar as having created a vacuum that may take time to fill.
“But what do we do when Allah has decided to take His servant who has done well unto His own presence where death will and effort will be no more? Our only prayer is and should be that Allah please forgive, purify his gentle soul, admit Baba and repose him in Al-Jannah,” the online newspaper management said in a statement signed in Lagos on Sunday on behalf of its President, AIG Mu’azu Idris Hadejia (Rtd).
