The oldest retired judge of the High Court of Lagos State, Justice Isiaka Isola Oluwa died on Saturday at the age of 102.
Justice Oluwa died in his home at Ilupeju, Lagos in the early hours of Saturday, it was learned.
It was gathered that he was buried at the Atan Cemetery, Yaba, according to Islamic rites.
The late Jurist was born on June 23, 1918, to Lagosian parents in Cross River State.
He attended Forcados Government School, Bonny; St Bartholomew’s School, Degema; Government School, Sapele; and King’s College, Lagos.
Justice Oluwa also attended the School of Agriculture, Samaru-Zaria, the University of London where he studied Law, at Lincoln’s Inn, London, where he was called to the Bar in 1957.
The late jurist worked several as a lecturer, Farm Management, University of Ibadan(1949-50), Lecturer, School of Agriculture, Samaru-Zaria, and Extension Manager, Zaria Province.
He started his law practice after he returned back to Nigeria from London and formed Oluwa, Kotoye, and Co.
He was appointed High Court judge on June 1, 1974.
He would be remembered as the judge that sentenced Lagos socialite, Alhaji Jimoh Isola, a.k.an Ejigbadero, to death for the murder of a farmer, Raji Oba over land disputes, in 1975.
He retired on June 17, 1983.
Justice Oluwa at various times was Member, Board of Governors, Glover Memorial Hall (1965-1974), member, Lagos Town Council, Member, Reorganization of Local Government, Lagos State, and Pro-Chancellor of Lagos State University, Ojo.
Also, for many years, he was the chairman of the Association of Lagos indigenous retired judges.
The Altona Odua of Yorubaland, Chief Bode George said Justice Oluwa was definitive of the essence of the Lagosian identity.
George, a former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a statement by his special adviser, Prince Uthman Shodipe-Dosunmu described the late justice 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 has lost a great man who could not be compromised by any inducement and who faced adversity with bold, engaging fierceness.
Shodipe-Dosunmu said: “He was a principled man, unafraid, defiant, stern, bold, indifferent to the tools of animadversion”
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