NIGERIA- Minister of State for Labour, James Ocholi, his wife and son died in a road accident along the Kaduna-Abuja highway on Sunday aternoon.
The late Ocholi was Born November 26, 1960, he was 55.
It was gathered that Mr. Ocholi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria from Kogi state, and his son died on the spot of the accident, while the wife was in coma and died some hours later.
It was reported by eyewitnesses that a burst tyre caused the minister’s care to somersault several times, killing the minister and his family, while others are in critical condition.
Mr. Ocholi became Senior Advocate of Nigeria in 2007, and Chairman, Disciplinary Committee of the Abuja chapter of the Nigeria Bar Association.
In 2011, he was governorship aspirant in Kogi State on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change.
Between 2013 and 2014, he was deputy national legal adviser of the All Progressive Congress.
He was appointed minister in 2015.
Mr. Ocholi attended Ochaja Secondary School, and the University of Jos.
He graduated from the Nigerian Law School in 1986 and was admitted to the Nigerian Bar the same year.
President Muhammadu Buhari, in a statement by his spokesperson, Garba Shehu, expressed shock and sadness at the deaths.
Mr. Buhari described the minister’s death as untimely, regretting that Nigeria has lost a key component of the change agenda.
“Barrister Ocholi was an accomplished and patriotic Nigerian, who was keen to accept the call to service at a time his country needed him,” President Buhari said, adding that in the few months he had been in office, the late minister had already begun to distinguish himself through his commitment and dedication to work.
“The entire country mourns the loss of this great man, who has sadly left us when we need him most,” he said.
Responding, Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi, has expressed shock at the death.
Mr. Bello in a statement issued in Lokoja on Sunday described the death of Ocholi as a monumental loss for the state and the country at large.
“Late Ocholi was a pragmatic, dynamic, humane and brilliant law officer who was known around the world for his dexterous approach to legal and political issues and one of the most unswerving constitutional lawyers Nigeria has ever produced,’’ the governor said of the late minister.
Other members of the APC are still in shock.
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