ENUGU State governor, Sullivan Chime, yesterday, described the demise of retired Supreme Court Justice, Anthony Aniagolu, as a big blow to the nation, saying the country has lost one of its finest legal brains and highly patriotic public servants.
Justice Aniagolu, one of Nigeria’s most eminent and celebrated jurists, died in Enugu on Tuesday evening at the age of 89.
In a condolence message signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Chukwudi Achife, the governor said the late Justice Aniagolu had maintained a glittering and highly successful career as a Barrister, followed by an illustrious and trail-blazing record on the bench, first as a High Court Judge, then Chief Judge of old Anambra State and finally as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
The governor added that the late Jurist had while serving on the bench, delivered many landmark judgments and enunciated powerful legal opinions that would continue to impact positively and progressively on important legal issues in the country long after his death.
Chime noted that Justice Aniagolu had also served the nation diligently and gloriously as Chairman of the 1989 constituent Assembly and as Chairman of several commissions and tribunals, including the Kano Maitatsine Disturbances Tribunal.
The governor, who saluted the jurist’s life-long advocacy for and commitment to the pursuit of national unity through the enthronement of equity, equality and justice in the treatment of various ethnic groups in the country, paid glowing tribute to Justice Aniagolu’s role in the creation and development of Enugu State, stressing that the government and people of the state were duty bound to ensure that his lofty visions and those of his co-founding fathers for the state were fully realized.
“Nigeria has long, indeed, lost one of her more illustrious sons in the death of Justice Anthony Aniagolu. He was a colossus in all that he endeavoured to do and he served this nation with exemplary dedication. We in Enugu State are particularly sad because he was one of our very eminent sons who served as beacons of progress and development for the entire state and the eastern region in general,” Chime said.
