President Bola Tinubu has announced the appointment of seven new aides to the Federal Ministry of Justice in Abuja. These individuals will work under the leadership of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN. According to Premium Times, the newly appointed aides include Kamarudeen Ogundele, who will serve as a special assistant to the president on communication and publicity; Hussein Oloyede, who will be a special assistant on arbitration, drafting, and regulations; and Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), who will serve as a special assistant on financial crimes and public prosecution compliance.
The other appointees are Monsurat Gafar, who will be a special assistant on coordination and intergovernmental agency relations; Marcus-Obiene Fernández, who will serve as a special assistant on justice sector reforms and ICT/digital and innovative technology; Ahmed Wada, who will be a special assistant on special duties; and Tolu Obamuroh, who will serve as a technical adviser on oil and gas, arbitration, and international disputes.
Kamarudeen Ogundele is a well-respected journalist and currently holds the position of group news editor at the Abuja-based Daily Trust newspaper. Before joining Daily Trust in 2021, he worked in various capacities at The Nation, The Punch, Business Day, and Leadership Newspapers over a career spanning more than a decade. Hussein Oloyede, on the other hand, has accumulated legal practice experience from private firms and public institutions since his call to the Nigerian Bar. He started his career at the law firm of the erudite legal practitioner Yusuf O. Ali (SAN).
He joined the Commission and was appointed by the Commissioner for Insurance as the secretary of the Takaful Advisory Council of NAICOM. He served in that capacity until his present appointment. Ms Gafar was appointed after working as the principal private secretary to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara state. Prior to that, she was assistant secretary to a UK junior minister. Marcus-Obiene Fernandez is described as “a commercial and technology dispute resolution (litigation & ADR) specialist” on the website of Tsedaqah Attorneys.
Obamuroh is an associate in White & Case’s International Arbitration Group based in Paris, France. His profile on the website of White & Case notes his practice area as including international commercial and investment arbitration. Wada, a Kano-based lawyer, was the immediate past vice chairperson of the Ungogo branch of the Nigerian Bar Association in Kano. He also served as chair of the NBA Young Lawyers Forum from 2016 to 2018. Oyedepo, a high-flying prosecutor for the EFCC, is also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.