Former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Mohammed Uwais, has passed away. He died at the age of 88.
The former CJN died in the early hours of Friday, according to the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice of Ondo State, Dr. Kayode Ajulo.
Uwais served as Chief Justice of Nigeria from 1995 until his retirement in 2006.
After his retirement, he chaired the Presidential Electoral Reform Committee inaugurated by late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, with members such as Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah and human rights lawyer, Olisa Agbakoba, SAN.
His funeral arrangements have not been announced.
Born on June 12, 1936, in Zaria, Kaduna State, Justice Uwais was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple, London, in 1963.
He began his legal career as a State Counsel in the Northern Region of Nigeria and rose through the ranks to become a Justice of the Supreme Court in
1979.
In 1995, he was appointed Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), a position he held until his retirement in 2006.
At the age of 36, Justice Uwais was already on the High Court Bench. At 41 he was at the Federal Court of Appeal, as it was called then. By the time he turned 43, he had been elevated to the Nigerian Supreme Court.