So Sad; Rights Activist Lawyer, Bamidele Aturu, Dies At 49

A prominent Lagos-based human rights activist and lawyer, Mr. Bamidele Aturu, has died in Lagos at the age of 49.

Though circumstances surrounding his death were sketchy at press time, sources said that the late lawyer was preparing to travel to Uyo, Akwa Ibom State for a case when he suddenly developed certain medical challenge in his residence in Lagos.

 

He was promptly rushed to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUITH) in Ikeja, Lagos, where he was pronounced dead.

Confirming the development to LEADERSHIP in a telephone interview last night, the President of the Campaign for Democracy (CD), Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, said, “We have lost him. I was told that he died early this morning, as I am talking to you now, I am in shock.”

An indigene of Ondo State, the late Aturu was born on October 16, 1964 and studied law at the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). He was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1995.

But the late Aturu shot into national prominence in 1988 during his passing out parade of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) when he refused to shake hands with the then Military Governor of Niger State, Col. Lawan Gwadabe, having emerged as the He had cited the military as having caused great harm to the democratic aspirations of Nigerians as the reason for his action.

Upon the completion of his mandatory NYSC, Aturu joined other to establish a pressure group, the Democratic Alternative (DA), to pursue what the members termed “deep-rooted democratic principles.”

The late activist was nominated as a member of the ongoing National Conference to represent the civil society, but he rejected his membership, arguing that the conference as designed cannot meet the expectation of Nigerians.