July 10, 2014

C/o Bamidele Aturu Chambers

Lagos.

Dear Madam

With heavy heart and profound sense of loss we hereby commiserate with you and your entire family on the death of your dear husband, constitutional lawyer and human rights activist Comrade Barrister Bamidele Aturu on Wednesday July 9, 2014 in Lagos after a brief illness.

We wish to place on record the commendable effort of late Barrister Aturu during the battle against Nigeria’s Military dictatorship and his contribution to the promotion and sustenance of Nigeria’s democracy and defence of human rights. As one of the founding members of Democratic Alternative, he was committed to pursuing deep-rooted democratic principles and holding those in power accountable to the governed.

He came to prominence as a fighter against power abuses when, as a member of the National Youth Service Corps, he refused to shake the hand of a military administrator  of Niger State, Col. Lawan Gwadabe in 1988 during his NYSC passing out parade declaring that the military had caused great harm to the democratic aspirations of Nigerians.

As a legal luminary who graduated from the prestigious University of Ife, late Comrade Bamidele Aturu devoted much of his legal practice to representing marginalized or oppressed individuals and groups.  He was indeed a ‘Senior Advocate of the Masses’.

As our union’s lawyer for many years, he was instrumental to the remarkable progress we made in the defence of workers’ rights. His effort led to the progress we have made in the payment of outstanding benefits of our members in closed textile factories in Kaduna notably, Finetex and Nortex Limited. We will forever remember him for his passion for workers’ rights and trade union development.

You are definitely the most bereaved, but all of us are losers with the death of your dear husband and friend of the Union.

On behalf of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the union and the generality of our members, we sympathize with you and your family in particular, the Nigerian Bar Association, the organized labour and civil society organizations and the entire nation on this irreparable loss.

May the Almighty God grant his departed soul eternal rest and give us the fortitude to bear this great loss.

Please accept our sympathy.

Yours faithfully

Oladele Hunsu                      Issa Aremu, mni