More Nigerians on Sunday showered encomiums on the late retired Supreme Court Justice, Kayode Eso, with Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, describing him as “the mystery judge.”
The late jurist, Soyinka said, would remain a man of honour considering his stellar integrity.
Eso, 87, died on Friday at the Hammersmith Hospital, London, following a protracted illness.
Soyinka, in his tribute entitled the mystery judge, said, “He titled the narrative of his life on the bench: The mystery gunman. For me, he has remained – The Mystery Judge.
“It is endlessly fascinating to consider that he may have changed the probable course of my existence, but this is not why I mourn him, or pay him tribute. We bonded. That bond began without his knowledge, months before I actually stood trial in his court. It began as we monitored his phone calls – among others’ – during the Western Region crisis, and heard him resist pressure from the apex of power, urging him to dent the shield of justice. He resisted with grace, with a disarming sense of humour. Who was this judge? I wondered.
“At the feast of after-life, or wherever a table is set aside for judges of stellar integrity, there will Kayode Eso be seated, in a high place of honour.”
Also, Senator, representing Lagos East Senatorial District, Gbenga Ashafa, said the death was a huge loss to the nation’s judiciary.
The senator, in a statement on Saturday, said Eso was a highly respected justice with enormous judicial precedents to his credit.
He added, “He was fearless, courageous and daring in the face of several intimidation and today, even in death, he remains the most active and highly influential legal luminary ever sprouted out of our soil.”
Similarly, a member of the House of Representatives, Opeyemi Bamidele, has called for the overhauling of the country’s judicial system to earn the confidence of Nigerians and to be able to produce more of the likes of the late Eso.
Bamidele, who is the Chairman, House Committee on Legislative Budget and Research in a statement in Ado Ekiti, described the late Eso as incorruptible and a steadfast judge during his lifetime.
November 19, 2012 by Femi Makinde and Sodiq Oyeleke
Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE
Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner
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