Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State is dead at 67.
According to reports, Akeredolu died in Lagos on Wednesday of leukemia.
He was the President of the Nigerian Bar Association between 2008-2010.
According to Anthony Atata,the Founding Editor of Courtroom Mail who started documenting the NBA in 2009,Rotimi Akeredolu had the most controversial tenure as NBA President in post Military era NBA.
He was fearless. A letter he wrote to the then Chief Justice Of Nigeria, Idris Kutigi dated the 27th of August 2009 escalated crisis in his executive committee and almost led to his impeachment at a NEC meeting held at Zodiac Hotel Enugu on the 10th of December 2009.
It was during his time as the President of NBA that the events leading to the death of Umaru Yar’dua and the rise of Jonathan happened. He made the voice of the NBA very audible.
During his tenure,the movement of Pa Tunji Gomez to abolish the rank of SAN was at its peak which led to the letter of 27th of August 2009,the suspension of the award in 2009 and his walk out from the SAN conferment at the Supreme Court in 2010 following a comment by a Supreme Court judge on the 12th of April 2010. He was the last NBA President to be returned unopposed,Anthony Atata says
Akeredolu returned to Nigeria in September following a three-month medical leave in Germany and only recently proceeded on another one after he was directed by President Bola Tinubu to hand over power to his deputy, Lucky Aiyedatiwa.⁰
His deputy, Aiyedatiwa has been standing in as Acting Governor.
Following his return to Nigeria in September, Akeredolu stayed in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital and tried to govern his state from there, leading to public outrage.