Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN, GCON) is expected as the Special Guest of Honour at the inaugural Annual Lecture in honour of Late Emeritus Professor Adedokun Adeyemi holding in Lagos.
Hosted by the Professor Adedokun Adebayo Adeyemi Foundation, the event which holds tomorrow, Friday, January 19, 2018 at 10 am the University of Lagos (UNILAG) Multipurpose Hall A will be chaired by the Honourable Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
The lecture titled “Criminal Justice Administration in Nigeria: Past, Present and Future” will be delivered by the Honourable Justice Mojeed Owoade, justice of the Court of Appeal. Among the cream of eminent discussants is Mr. Gary Hill, Training Director at the International Corrections and Prisons Association (ICPA).
Expected at the epoch-making event are renowned jurists, members of the Bar and Bench, government functionaries, policy makers, and stakeholders in the criminal justice sector among others.
Emeritus Professor Adeyemi is reputed as perhaps the foremost criminal law jurist to have bestrode Nigeria’s legal landscape. He was born on the 5th May, 1940 and died on November 1, 2016. He gained admission into the Law Degree Programme at the University of Hull, England in October 1960. After graduation, he was admitted to the prestigious Inner Temple, London for his professional legal education between 1960 and 1963.
He returned to Nigeria briefly in 1963 for his second professional training at the Nigerian Law School. Between 1964 and 1965 he obtained a Master of Laws Degree in Law and Criminology at the renowned London School of Economics, University of London, England. He furthered his interest in criminology by obtaining a Post Graduate Diploma in Criminology from the Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge. His advanced studies in criminology prepared him for a distinguished life and career as arguably Nigeria’s foremost criminologist. His interests included Criminology, Criminal Law, Sentencing and Treatment of Offenders, Human Rights Law, and Child Rights Law. He taught and examined at undergraduate, postgraduate and at doctoral levels.
As at January 2007, Emeritus Professor Adeyemi’s academic publications were 41 chapters’ contributions in books, 22 articles in learned journals, 6 comments on cases and statutes, 26 Monographs/Commissioned works, 35 papers presented at international conferences, and 31 papers presented at national conferences. Emeritus Professor Adeyemi was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Nigerian Journal of Public Law, and acted as Editor to the Nigerian Law Journal (the official Journal of the Nigerian Association of Law Teachers between 1999-2006) and the Nigerian Journal of Criminology between 1974-1980.
Professor Adeyemi contributed immensely to the development of Nigeria’s criminal jurisprudence. The Bills drafted in various capacities for the Nigerian Government include the following: He co-drafted the Corruption and other Economic Crimes Bill 1990; he co-drafted the Criminal Justice (Victims Remedy) Bill 1990; he co-drafted the Unified Criminal Code of Nigeria, 1993; he drafted the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child Enforcement Bill 2000; he drafted the Children’s Bill 2001 later enacted as the Child’s Rights Act, and he co-drafted the Bill Prohibiting Discrimination Against Women in Nigeria, 2006.
He was the Nigerian Nominated Expert, elected by the United Nations Economic and Social Council to its Committee on Crime Prevention and Control (1979-1984). He was also the Nigerian Nominated Expert, Elected by the United Nations Economic and Social Council to its Committee on Crime Prevention and Control (1979-1984). Prof. Adeyemi was the Leader of Nigerian Delegation to the Seventh United Nations Congress for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders held in Milan Italy, 26 August to 6th September 1985.
Emeritus Professor Adeyemi is perhaps the best-known Nigerian Professor of Law with the most remarkable contribution to the United Nations System in the field of criminal justice and criminology. Top on the list was his appointment and service as Director of Justice Division, United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNISOM II) from 6th November 1993 to 2 April 1995. Prof. also contributed to developments in the United Nations System. He was among others the Chairperson of the Group of Governmental Experts on the Establishment of the United Nations African Regional Institute on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders, New York September, 1986, and Consultant to the United Nations on producing the Seminal Draft of the United Nations International Code of Conduct for Public Officials, 1989.
He was a Member of the Council and of the Executive Board of the International Scientific Advisory Council of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, Milan, 1991-2004; Member of Council and of the Executive Board of the International Scientific Advisory Council of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, Milan, 1991-2004; Member of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Inter regional Crime and Justice Research Institute Rome, 1997-2001; President of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Crime and Justice Research Institute, Rome (1991-2000 and Turin (2000-2001), and one of the international experts that finalised the drafting of the United Nations Convention on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 1988.
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