Buhari mourns as Nigeria’s Ambassador to US dies

President Muhammadu Buhari has commiserated with the family, friends associates of Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, Sylvanus Adiewere Nsofor, over his death.

Nsofor, 85, died late Thursday in the US.

He was a retired justice of the Court of Appeal and assumed office as Nigeria’s ambassador to the US on November 13, 2017.

Buhari‘s condolences were conveyed in a statement on Friday, which was signed by the President’s Senior Special Assistant, Malam Garba Shehu.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, in a statement, said the President, in a telephone spoke to Jane, the widow of the retired justice in New York on Friday.

He described Nsofor as “an outstanding judge of rare courage and truth who is not afraid to give justice to whom justice is due.”

According to the statement, the President was apparently referring to the 2003 presidential election petitions on which Nsofor delivered a minority judgment as a member of the election appeal tribunal in his favour as the candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP).

Buhari said the country would miss his exemplary pedigree.

The statement added that Buhari directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work with Nsofor’s family on the burial arrangements and prayed God to comfort those mourning the departed jurist.

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

Born on March 17, 1935, in Oguta, Imo State, Nsofor graduated from London’s now-defunct Holborn College of Law in 1962.

He also bagged an LL.M from the London School of Economics in 1964.

Nsofor began teaching at Holborn College of Law in 1964 and later went into private practice the following year.

He was appointed to the bench in Nigeria in 1977 and served as a judge of the Imo State High Court.