Buhari mourns as Nigeria’s Ambassador to US, Nsofor, dies aged 85

Sylvanus Nsofor, Nigerian ambassador to the United States, has passed is dead.

Okay.ng gathered that the 85-year-old died on Thursday in Maryland hospital, Washington DC on Thursday.

President Muhammadu Buhari in a statement issued by his spokesman, Garba Shehu, said the late Nsofor was an “outstanding judge of rare courage”.

The statement reads: “President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed heartfelt commiserations with the family, friends and associates of Nigeria’s Out-going Ambassador to the United States, Justice Sylvanus Adiewere Nsofor over his demise.

“In a telephone call to Jane, the widow of the retired justice in New York on Friday, the President described Amb. Nsofor as “an outstanding judge of rare courage and truth who is not afraid to give justice to whom justice is due.”

“Apparently referring to the 2003 presidential election during which Justice Nsofor delivered a minority judgment as a member of the Election Appeal Panel in favour of Gen. Buhari as candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), the President said the country will miss people with such exemplary pedigree.Advertisement

“President Buhari, who has directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work with Justice Nsofor’s family on the burial arrangements, prayed God to comfort all who mourn the departed jurist and grant his soul eternal rest.”

Nsofor, a retired justice of Nigeria’s Court of Appeal, assumed office as Nigeria’s ambassador to the United States on November 13, 2017.

He succeeded Prof. Adebowale Adefuye, who died towards the end of his tenure as Nigeria’s ambassador to the US.

Nsofor graduated from London’s now-defunct Holborn College of Law in 1962.