Kutugi named chairman of National Conference

A statement by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation Anyim Pius Anyim said Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi will serve as vice chairman while Mrs. Valerie Azinge will serve as secretary.The Federal Government had in January rolled out the modalities for the conference which will have 492 members, with President Jonathan saying last week that […]

A statement by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation Anyim Pius Anyim said Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi will serve as vice chairman while Mrs. Valerie Azinge will serve as secretary.
The Federal Government had in January rolled out the modalities for the conference which will have 492 members, with President Jonathan saying last week that the conference proper will begin on the 10th of this month.
The statement from Anyim said the appointees are to resume at Abuja on Wednesday.
Kutigi, who hails from Niger state, was the CJN from January 30, 2007 to December 30, 2009. He was born December 31, 1939.
He studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and the Gibson and Weldon College of Law, before returning to attend the Nigerian Law School in Lagos, Lagos State.
Kutigi served as the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Niger State before becoming a high court judge in 1976. He joined the Supreme Court in 1992 and served for 10 years before President Olusegun Obasanjo appointed him Chief Justice, succeeding outgoing Salihu Alfa Belgore.
Prof Akinyemi, who will serve as the vice chair of the conference, was born in Ilesa in what is now Osun State.
He attended the Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, from 1962 to 1964, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, US, 1964 to 1966, and Trinity College, Oxford University, England, from 1966 until 1969.
He was a visiting professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva and at the Diplomacy Training Programme, University of Nairobi, Kenya, both in 1977.
Akinyemi was Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) from 1975 until 1983. He was appointed Minister of External Affairs by military president Ibrahim Babangida in 1985.
The secretary, Dr Azinge, is an indigene of Enugu State. She is a 1980 Law graduate of the University of Jos and was called to the bar in 1981. She attended the London School of Economics for her master in Law in 1984 and obtained a doctorate in Law at the Ambrose Alli University, Edo State.
She is a constitutional lawyer who specialises in corporate law and human rights issues. She is a pioneer member of the board of the National Human Rights Commission, appointed in 1995, serving two terms.