Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States, Justice Sylvanus Adiewere Nsofor, is dead.
He reportedly died Thursday night at Maryland Hospital at the age of 85.
The envoy succeeded Prof Adebowale Adefuye, who died towards the end of his tenure.
A retired justice of Nigeria’s Court of Appeal, Nsofor assumed office as Nigeria’s ambassador to the United States on November 13, 2017.
President Muhammadu Buhari, in a statement described the late ambassador as a man of rare courage.
The statement, issued by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, condoled with the family, friends and associates of Justice Nsofor over his demise.
The president, in a telephone call to Jane, the widow of the retired justice in New York, said Nsofor was “an outstanding judge of rare courage and truth, who was not afraid to give justice to whom justice was due.”
Buhari was apparently referring to the 2003 presidential election, during which Justice Nsofor delivered a minority judgement as a member of the election appeal panel in his favour as candidate of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).
The president said the country would miss people with such exemplary pedigree.
While directing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work with Nsofor’s family on the burial arrangements, prayed God to comfort all who mourned the departed jurist and grant his soul eternal rest.
Also, in a statement by the spokesperson of the ministry, Ferdinand Nwonye, the envoy was said to have died on Thursday after a brief illness.
According to the statement, Nsofor is survived by wife, three children and grandchildren.
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