ADEMOLA, Adetokunbo
Sir Adetokunbo Adegboyega Ademola was a distinguished Nigerian jurist who became the first indigenous chief justice of the Nigerian Supreme Court (1958-72) and was a cofounder of the Nigerian Law School. Born in Abeokuta on 1 February 1906, Adetokunbo was the son of Sir Ladapo Ademola 11, the paramount ruler (1920-63) of the Egba people in southern Nigeria. He attended King’s College in Lagos and Selwyn College, Cambridge, England, before studying law at the 1Vliddle Temple in London and being called to the bar in 1934. Following his return to Nigeria, Ademola worked in the civil service, practised law and served as a magistrate (1939-49) and a puisne judge (1949-55). He was appointed to the Nigerian Supreme Court by the British authorities in 1949 and named chief justice of the Western Region in 1955. He became chancellor of the University of Nigeria in 1975 and chairman of the Commonwealth Foundation in 1978. Ademola was knighted in 1957 and made a privy counsellor in 1963. He died on 29January 1993.