BY FOLASHADE KEHINDE
NIGERIAN Ambassador to the United States, Sylvanus Nsofor, is dead.
Nsofor reportedly died on Thursday night at the age of 85.
No official statement has however been issued by the Federal Government as of the time of filing this report.
Recall that Prof. Ade Adefuye, the late Nsofor’s predecessor, had also died while in office.
The Octogenarian’s appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari had sparked controversies around his age and fitness for the office.
He assumed office as Nigeria’s Ambassador to the US on November 13, 2017.
Born on March 17, 1935, in Oguta, Imo State, Nigeria, 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.
The late envoy 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. Nsofor was a justice on the Court of Appeal of Nigeria for 13 years until his mandatory retirement in 2005.
Nsofor cast the dissenting vote in a three-justice panel in a contested 2003 presidential race between Muhammadu Buhari, who was presidential candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
