Justice Isiaka Ishola Oluwa (rtd) is dead aged 101.
He was born in 1918 and would have been 102 years old on May 23.
He was appointed a judge of the Lagos judiciary in 1974 and retired 37 years ago, having attained the mandatory retirement age.
Justice Oluwa, a product of the famous King’s College, Lagos, was a former Pro-Chancellor of the Lagos State University.
He was the judge who handled the famous Ejigbadero case.
His auto biography, A Life in Motion, was published in 2018, when he attained the age of 100.
Justice Oluwa has been described as a very remarkable judge and a beacon of hope to all of the retired judges of the Lagos Judiciary.
In a tribute, former Deputy National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party, Chief Bode George, described Justice Oluwa as definitive of the essence of the Lagosian identity.
George, who is also the Atọna Oodua, described the late judge as a bundle of principled persona, strong in wit and humor, dedicated to the liberation of Lagos and the oppressed from the whims and the caprices of the oppressors.
Mr. Gbadebo Dallass, who equally knew him well, said Lagos had lost a great man who could not be compromised by any inducement and who faced adversity with bold, engaging fierceness.
Special Adviser on Political Matters to Chief George, Prince Uthman Shodipe-Dosunmu, said Justice Oluwa was “a principled man, unafraid, defiant, stern, bold, and indifferent to the tools of animadversion.
“He spoke truth to power with fearless, ferocious articulation. He sought no tinseled limelight or the petty glitter of public appearances. He loved Lagos, the land of his birth. And he lived the truth.
“He was unceasing in his collision with the warped, with the twisted and with what is wrong with our national structure.
“His voice reverberated with relentless energy, full of engaging fervour, natural, sworn in principled morality. He was bold, fearless, unafraid, defiant of the whims of animadversion. He couldn’t be bought by the pettiness of lucre. He was an island on his own.
“He will be sorely missed for his faithfulness to the truth, for his principled audacity and for his relentless canvass for the righteous path.”
