Ben Nwabueze passed on at 92 on Monday in Lagos, according to family sources who informed Peoples Gazette following social media reports. 

The Nigerian constitutional law professor, born on September 4, 1931, in Anambra, died following a protracted illness from old age, family sources said under anonymity to discuss the development before a formal family statement. 

He was a one-time secretary general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, the socio-political group that seeks to advance the interest of Nigeria’s Igbo ethnic nationalities in Nigeria. The body was not immediately available for comment. 

Mr Nwabueze’s work as a legal scholar transcended the Nigerian shores for decades, receiving recognition from several Western institutions, including Stanford University. He schooled extensively in England, earning a doctorate in law from the University of London in 1978. 

Previously at the University of London, Mr Nwabueze earned an undergraduate degree in political science at the institution’s African and Oriental Studies Department in 1961. For years, he was a senior faculty at Holborn College of Law, London, and the University of Nigeria Nsukka, as well as the university in Lusaka, Zambia. 

He also published several books and papers on constitutional law, including on the military’s intervention in the political affairs of Nigeria and other African countries. between the 1980s and 1990s.

In 2019, he was a member of the election petitions filed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party against President Muhammadu Buhari’s reelection. But the team lost the case after Mr Buhari removed the head of the Supreme Court, Walter Onnoghen, and replaced him with a more pliable ally, Tanko Muhammad.

A family statement would be issued soon on Mr Nwabueze’s passing, The Gazette was told.