Lateef Adegbite

Lateef Adegbite (20 March 1933 – 28 September 2012) was a lawyer who became Attorney General of the Western Region of Nigeria, and who later became Secretary-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs.

Birth and education Abdu-Lateef Oladimeji Adegbite was born on 20 March 1933 into a strictly Muslim Egba family in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

According to one account, he attended Methodist School, Abeokuta.

He says himself that he attended Arabic School, then entered St. Paul's Primary School in Igbore, Abeokuta in 1942, when he was aged nine.

Adegbite obtained a scholarship to attend King's College, Lagos, where he was co-founder and first National president of the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria, graduating in 1956.

In 1959 the Western Region Premier Chief Obafemi Awolowo awarded him a scholarship to travel to England to study for a law degree under a plan drafted by Chief F.R.A. Williams.

Adegbite attended the University of Southampton, graduating with a B.A. in law in July 1962.

He then studied at the College of Law for Solicitors, Lancaster Gate in London, and then at Gray's Inn (1963–1965). He was one of the founders of the Abeokuta Social Club in 1972.

Adegbite was president of the Nigeria Olympic Committee from 1972 to 1985.

Adegbite was appointed a Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON).

Dr Lateef Adegbite was a brother of the late famous, renowned historian Professor Saburi Biobaku (1918–2001), a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos.

Muslim leader At the constituent assembly in 1976, Adegbite argued in favour of introducing Islamic courts of appeal into the southern states of Nigeria, arguing that Muslims had the right to have their affairs judged according to Sharia law.

He has stated "Muslims have no other constitution and law apart from what Sharia had laid down. Sharia as a divine law supersedes all other civil and moral laws". He was to support efforts by M.K.O. Abiola to introduce Sharia to the southern states in the early 1990s.

He reasserted this position in December 2002 during a period of heightened tension between Christians and Muslims. Adegbite was chairman of the Ogun State Pilgrims Board and a member of the National Pilgrims Board.

In late 2002 and early 2003, Adegbite was engaged in a public dispute with the Nobel Prize–winning author Wole Soyinka, who accused Muslim leaders of inciting violence after rioting in Kaduna had led to many people being killed. The origin was opposition by Muslims to staging the Miss World beauty contest in Nigeria.

The riots were triggered by what were taken to be blasphemous statements by a Christian newspaper reporter, Isioma Daniel, who wrote that if the Prophet had attended the event he might have picked one of the contestants as a wife.

Later the deputy governor of Zamfara State, Mamauda Aliyu Shinkafi, was reported to have said in a public speech that it might be lawful for a Muslim to shed the blood of Isioma Daniel. Adegbite immediately rejected this position, since the journalist was not Muslim and the newspaper had apologised publicly.

Adegbite stated in an October 2003 newspaper article that "the US and their allies should be persuaded to accept that the prevailing international terror would reduce considerably if justice is entrenched in the Middle East. Give the Palestinians back their land, there will no longer [be] platforms for the Osama bin Ladens of this world to thrive. Without justice there can be no peace".

Death Dr Adegbite died in Lagos on 28, September 2012.